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A fomes (pronounced /ˈfoʊmiːz/) or fomite (/ˈfoʊmaɪt/) is any nonliving object or substance capable of carrying infectious organisms, such as viruses or bacteria, and hence transferring them from one individual to another. Skin cells, hair, clothing, and bedding are common hospital sources of contamination.
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Fomites are associated particularly with hospital-acquired infections (HAI), as they are possible routes to pass pathogens between patients. Stethoscopes and neckties are two such fomites associated with health care providers. 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.
Researchers have discovered that smooth (non-porous) 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.
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 /ˈfoʊmiːz/, is documented since 1658. The English word fomite, which has been in use since 1859, is a back-formation from the plural fomites (originally borrowed from the Latin plural fōmĭtēs [ˈfoːmiteːs] of fōmĕs [ˈfoːmes]). The English-language pronunciation of fomites is /ˈfoʊmaɪts/, while the singular, fomite, is pronounced /ˈfoʊmaɪt/.
In popular culture
Fomites play a conspicuous role in Steven Soderbergh's 2011 film Contagion about a pandemic.