Some viruses are fecal-orally transmitted. What does fecal-oral transmission mean?

What is fecal-oral transmission?

Fecal-oral transmission means that bacteria and viruses are excreted through feces and pollute the environment, and then re-enter the human digestive tract to infect people. The more common fecal-oral borne diseases include hepatitis A, hepatitis, typhoid, cholera, hand, foot and mouth disease, mites, ascariasis and other parasitic diseases. Generally speaking, fecal-oral borne diseases can easily occur in people or environments with poor sanitary conditions.

The fecal-oral transmission route is the most classic transmission route of infectious diseases. In popular terms, people enter the pathogen and "eat" the stomach to cause infection. The 2019-nCoV nucleic acid (new coronavirus) was detected positive in the feces and anal swabs of some patients diagnosed with pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus. In other words, the new coronavirus survives in the anus and feces.

Attention people in Xi’an! Elevator buttons, don’t turn your phone into a source of virus infection. Experts bring you a notice on fecal-oral transmission

If the patient does not find out in time and a small amount of feces contaminates his hands after defecation, then this person is a person with poor hygiene awareness and comes into contact with other people through his hands. For items in public places, such as elevators, bus railings, money, etc., hands with trace amounts of excrement can only cause contamination of elevator buttons and other items. If another person touches the elevator button or something, it will definitely cause contamination of the hands of the person who comes in contact later. And then people who pollute can also cause the spread of pollution, for example within homes. At this time, if you do not wash your hands in time and do not eat, the virus in your hands will enter the body together with the food, causing infection. So here’s a little more reason why elevators are probably the most dangerous place to be.

At present, many residential areas have special tissue boxes in elevator rooms to warn residents to use tissue to press the floor buttons of the elevator. This of course has a certain preventive effect. But even more important is hand and hand hygiene. Experts have reminded many times that correct and timely hand washing plays an important role in blocking the fecal-oral transmission route.

In addition to elevator buttons, there is another big carrier in life that is easy to ignore - mobile phones. The principle is the same as the elevator button. This is the classic fecal-oral transmission route. If virus-contaminated hands contaminate any items, especially items in public places, fecal-oral transmission will occur.

How should we prevent it?

The three basic elements of the spread of infectious diseases are the source of infection, the route of transmission and the susceptible population. Prevention is actually very simple. The principles of prevention and control of certain infectious diseases are the same. In other words, eliminate the source of transmission, cut off the transmission route, and protect the second generation of susceptible people. Then, in order to prevent the current new coronavirus, the source of infection is known patients and carriers of the virus.

Eliminate sources of infection: The way to "eliminate" them is to find them and cure them. So we now need to actively investigate the population to find out the source of this infection. If they continue to be outside, they will definitely cause more contamination of elevator buttons and public items. Blocking the transmission route: In addition to droplet transmission, contact transmission and respiratory transmission, the currently known transmission routes are also increasing the fecal-oral transmission route. How to cut is very simple. Wear a mask, wash your hands, ventilate frequently, avoid gatherings, go out less often, disinfect the surfaces of things, and maintain good hand hygiene. You will not put the virus in your stomach, so it is relatively safe.

Protecting susceptible groups: At present, in order to prevent the new coronavirus infection, responding to the national call to stay at home and take less activities is a typical protective measure for susceptible groups.

How to prevent cross-infection and protect the health of yourself and your family? After reading this article, I think I have a better understanding of why washing hands and cleaning and disinfecting items is important. I hope everyone can start from themselves and be responsible for themselves and others.