Chinese Researchers Say That Public Toilets Can Also Be A Source Of Coronavirus Transmissions
Source: Thailand Medical News Feb 03, 2020 4 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 4 hours, 16 minutes ago
Chinese virology researchers have discovered that genetic material of the new
coronavirus strain, 2019-nCoV was discovered in the stools and rectal swabs of patients confirming that the virus also can be transmitted through the digestive tract.
.jpg)
The new finding was made by scientists from the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences after noting that some patients infected with the
coronavirus had diarrhea early in the disease, instead of a fever, which is more predominant.
It was seen that most of patients in Wuhan that contracted the
coronavirus had diarrhoea as one of their symptoms.
This means that the pathogen might be transmitted along the faecal-oral route, not just from coming into contact with virus-laden droplets emitted from a sick person's cough or exhaled air.
Physicians have focused on respiratory samples from pneumonia cases to identify
coronavirus patients, but they might have ignored diarrhea, a less apparent potential source of the spread.
It was also noted that diarrhoea occurred in about 10 to 20 per cent of patients afflicted with a related
coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS.
In one significant case in Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic, hundreds of cases at Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens housing complex in 2003 was attributed to a virus-laden aerosol plume emanating from an individual infected with the SARS
coronavirus.
The implications of these findings are enormous as a patient with the
coronavirus and having diarrhea can use a public toilet, and the flushing of the toilet can help disseminate the unseen virus all over the toilet surfaces and even in the surrounding air. As these
coronavirus can survive outside of a host for as long as 5 days at room temperature and even longer at cooler temperatures, public toilets can also become a place where individuals can easily contract the disease.
Readers are to note that this is not fake news nor is it any attempt to disseminate news articles for sensational purposes as the data was released by the Chinese researchers and there are more than 48 published studies in credible medical journals indicating how viruses can be spread by toilet usage. Here are about 11 prominent research studies.
For more updates about the
China coronavirus epidemic or the
Thailand
Coronavirus scenario, keep on checking at:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
Barker, J.; Jones, M. V. (2005). "The potential spread of infection caused by aerosol contamination of surfaces after flushing a domestic toilet". Journal of Applied Microbiology. 99 (2): 339–347. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02610.x. ISSN 1364-5072. PMID 16033465.
Widdowson, Marc-Alain; Glass, Roger; Monroe, Steve; Beard, R. Suzanne; Bateman, John W.; Lurie, Perrianne; Johnson, Caroline (20 April 2005). "Probable transmission of norovirus on an airplane". JAMA. 293 (15): 1859–1860. doi:10.1001/jama.293.15.1859. ISSN 1538-3598. PMID 15840859.
Ho, Mei-Shang; Monroe, Stephan S.; Stine, Sarah; Cubitt, David; Glass, Roger I.; Madore, H. Paul; Pinsky, Paul F.; Ashley, Charles; Caul, E.O. (21 October 1989). "Viral Gastroenteritis Aboard a Cruise Ship". The Lancet. 334 (8669): 961–965. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(89)90964-1. ISSN 0140-6736.
"Outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) at Amoy Gardens, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong: Main Findings of the Investigation" (PDF). Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Department of Health. 29 March 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 April 2017.
Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k Johnson, David L.; Mead, Kenneth R.; Lynch, Robert A.; Hirst, Deborah V.L. (March 2013). "Lifting the lid on toilet plume aerosol: A literature review with suggestions for future research". American Journal of Infection Control. 41 (3): 254–258. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2012.04.330. PMC 4692156. PMID 23040490.
Jump up to:a b Jones, RM; Brosseau, L. M. (May 2015). "Aerosol transmission of infectious disease". Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 57 (5): 501–8. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000000448. PMID 25816216.
Barker, J.; Vipond, I. B.; Bloomfield, S. F. (1 September 2004). "Effects of cleaning and disinfection in reducing the spread of Norovirus contamination via environmental surfaces". The Journal of Hospital Infection. 58 (1): 42–49. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2004.04.021. ISSN 0195-6701. PMID 15350713.
Jump up to:a b c d e f Johnson, David; Lynch, Robert; Marshall, Charles; Mead, Kenneth; Hirst, Deborah (1 September 2013). "Aerosol Generation by Modern Flush Toilets". Aerosol Science and Technology. 47 (9): 1047–1057. doi:10.1080/02786826.2013.814911. ISSN 0278-6826. PMC 4666014. PMID 26635429. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017.
Best, E. L.; Sandoe, J. a. T.; Wilcox, M. H. (1 January 2012). "Potential for aerosolization of Clostridium difficile after flushing toilets: the role of toilet lids in reducing environmental contamination risk". The Journal of Hospital Infection. 80 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2011.08.010. ISSN 1532-2939. PMID 22137761.
Ray, C. Claiborne (26 November 2012). "Does Flushing a Toilet Release Germs Into the Air?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2016
Adams, Cecil (15 April 1999). "The Straight Dope". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on 20 April 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2017. 
