Evaluation of the virucidal performance of domestic laundry procedures

Laundering is one of the most important means to ensure a sufficient hygiene standard in the household environment. To evaluate the performance of this process, it is desirable to have methods that mimic the real-life situation as closely as possible. Although methods for the evaluation of the antibacterial and antifungal efficacy of domestic laundry procedures are available, the effect of laundering on viruses is still rather unclear. As the influence of laundry process parameters such as mechanical actions, temperature dynamics or liquor ratio cannot be simulated in vitro by suspension assays, a new in situ test method allowing virus simulation tests in washing machines has been developed. Using this in situ method we could show that conventional household washing detergents have a full virucidal efficiency at 40 °C also against non-enveloped surrogate viruses.