A fomite is any inanimate object that, when contaminated with or exposed to infectious agents, can transfer disease to a new host. Many common objects can sustain a pathogen until a person comes in contact with the pathogen, increasing the chance of infection. The likely objects are different in a hospital environment than at home or in a workplace.
Hospital fomites
For humans, skin cells, hair, clothing, and bedding are common hospital fomites. Fomites are associated particularly with hospital-acquired infections, as they are possible routes to pass pathogens between patients. Stethoscopes and neckties are common fomites associated with health care providers. It worries epidemiologists and hospital practitioners because of the growing selection of microbes resistant to disinfectants or antibiotics. Basic hospital equipment, such as IV drip tubes, catheters, and life support equipment, can also be carriers, when the pathogens form biofilms on the surfaces. Careful sterilization of such objects prevents cross-infection. Used syringes, if improperly handled, are particularly dangerous fomites. In addition to objects in hospital settings, other common fomites for humans are cups, spoons, pencils, bath faucet handles, toilet flush levers, door knobs, light switches, handrails, elevator buttons, television remote controls, pens, touch screens, common-use phones, keyboards, and computer mice, coffeepot handles, countertops, and any other items that may be frequently touched by different people and infrequently cleaned.
Everyday life
When two children in one household have influenza, more than 50% of shared items are contaminated with virus. In 40–90% cases, an adult infected with rhinovirus has virus on their hands. In 1916 in the French town of Lille authorities were warned by health official Dr Niessen that transmission of typhoid could occur during religious ceremonies via spread of contaminated holy water, or via the kiss on the bishop's ring or monstrance, especially as the priests were in frequent contact with the sick and dying.
Researchers have discovered that smooth surfaces like door knobs transmit bacteria and viruses better than porous materials like paper money because porous, especially fibrous, materials absorb and trap the contagion, making it harder to contract through simple touch. Nonetheless, fomites may include soiled clothes, towels, linens, handkerchiefs, and surgical dressings. The 2007 research showed that influenza virus was still active on stainless steel24 hours after contamination. Though on hands it survives only for five minutes, the constant contact with a fomite almost certainly means catching the infection. Transfer efficiency depends not only on surface, but mainly on pathogen type. For example, avian influenza survives on both porous and non-porous materials for 144 hours. Contaminated needles are the most common fomite that transmits HIV.
Etymology
The Italian scholar and physician Girolamo Fracastoro appears to have first used the Latin word fomes, meaning "tinder", in this sense in his essay on contagion, De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis, published in 1546: "By fomes I mean clothes, wooden objects, and things of that sort, which though not themselves corrupted can, nevertheless, preserve the original germs of the contagion and infect by means of these". English usage of fomes, pronounced, is documented since 1658. The English word fomite, which has been in use since 1859, is a back-formation from the plural fomites to, which led to the creation of a new singular fomite, pronounced. The French fomite, Italian fomite, Spanish fómite and Portuguese fómite or fômite, however, are derived directly from the Latin accusative singular fōmĭtēm, as it usually happens with Latin common nouns.
Popular culture
Fomites play a conspicuous role in Steven Soderbergh's 2011 film Contagion about a pandemic.
