Abstract Background: Environmental surfaces may serve as vectors for viral transmission, yet comprehensive data on the prevalence of viral contamination across diverse settings remain limited. Previous reviews have focused on single pathogens or specific outbreak events. Objective: To systematically synthesize evidence on the prevalence of viral contamination on environmental surfaces in human-inhabited settings worldwide. Methods: PubMed was searched in November 2025 following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines. Primary studies reporting molecularly confirmed detection of human viruses on environmental surfaces were included. Pooled prevalence was estimated using random-effects meta-analysis with Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation. Subgroup analyses were conducted by clinical virus group and setting type. Quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Prevalence Studies. Results: Of 437 articles screened, 120 met inclusion criteria, with 116 eligible for meta-analysis encompassing 43,061 surface samples. The overall pooled prevalence was 18.0% (95% confidence interval: 14.6%–21.6%; I 2 = 98.7%). Respiratory viruses (k = 99) showed a pooled prevalence of 16.4%, enteric viruses (k = 7) 17.8%, and monkeypox virus (k = 4) 81.8%. Among respiratory virus studies, contamination was highest in quarantine/isolation facilities (28.7%), households (26.6%), and schools (22.2%), and lowest in commercial settings (7.4%) and transport settings (10.5%). No single study materially changed the pooled estimates in leave-one-out analyses. Conclusions The pooled prevalence of viral surface contamination was 18.0%, with marked variation by virus type and setting. These findings highlight the need for standardized environmental surveillance protocols and suggest that disinfection strategies should be tailored to setting type and virus group; however, the relationship between molecular detection and transmission risk requires further investigation.
Ghiba et al. (2026) studied this question.