Chinese researchers have found the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that is at the center of a growing epidemic in the feces and anus tissue samples of infected patients, which could suggest another way the virus is being transmitted.
A study by Wuhan University Renmin Hospital and the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that nucleic acid tests of those samples came back positive for 2019-nCoV, online news services run by the Chinese News Service reported yesterday.
The finding suggested the virus could possibly be spread through “feces-to-mouth” transmission, in addition to transmission through droplets or direct physical contact, the Chinese News Service report said, citing the study’s results presented at a news briefing in Shenzhen on Saturday.
Chang Ko (張科), head of the infection control division of Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, yesterday said that the Chinese finding was not surprising, given that US researchers had already found 2019-nCoV residue in feces.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday said a stool sample taken from the first person confirmed in the US to have the coronavirus tested positive for the virus, Chang said.
Shih Shin-ru (施信如), head of the Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections at Chang Gung University, said that the new findings suggest preventing the spread of the virus will be more challenging, because there is another way it can be transmitted.
Local experts are advising the public to flush toilets with the lids down and to wash their hands thoroughly after going to the bathroom.
Hwang Kao-pin (黃高彬), director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at China Medical University in Taichung, said it was not uncommon to find viruses in stool.
However, the fecal transmission path could pose a threat, because if 2019-nCoV-infected stool is splashed by water out of a toilet, the virus it carries could live for two to three hours in the air and up to five days on the surface of an object, Hwang said.
To reduce the risk of infection, toilets should be disinfected with alcohol before they are used and flushed with their lids down, in addition to washing hands with soap after going to the toilet, Hwang added.
‘EFFECTIVE DETERRENCE’: If the Biden administration suspends arms sales to Taiwan, the military could still ready a nimble fighting force for defense, an analyst said The “US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific” last week sparked debate among analysts after US President Donald Trump declassified the document 20 years ahead of schedule. Trump on Tuesday last week released the document that had governed US strategic action in the region since the US leader approved its use in 2018. The document, which outlines US priorities in the region, emphasizes the importance of defending Taiwan against military aggression and facilitating the country’s development of asymmetric strategies and capabilities. The overall directive of the document is for the US to prevent China from establishing sustained air and sea dominance inside the first
SECOND RULING: Israeli-American Oren Shlomo Mayer refused to sign a court transcript, complained about the court translator and said the trial had been unfair The High Court yesterday upheld New Taipei City District Court’s verdicts on four men convicted last year in connection with the 2018 murder and dismemberment of a Canadian citizen on the banks of the Sindian River (新店溪). It found American-Israeli Oren Shlomo Mayer and American Ewart Odane Bent guilty of homicide and the abandonment and destruction of a corpse, with Mayer sentenced to life in prison and Bent given a term of 12 years and six months, for the death of Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan, whose body parts were found in a riverside park under Zhongzheng Bridge in New Taipei’s Yonghe
ALLEVIATING FEARS: The CECC would only announce public places where it is difficult to identify everyone there at the same time as the couple, minister Chen said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced six places where two locally infected COVID-19 cases had visited between Thursday last week and Sunday, urging people who had been at the places at the same time to monitor their health. The couple, cases 838, a doctor, and 839, his nurse girlfriend, were reported by the center on Tuesday. The doctor had treated a patient with COVID-19 last week before he began suffering symptoms on Friday, while the nurse began suffering symptoms on Saturday. They work in the same hospital in northern Taiwan, but the nurse had not worked with COVID-19 patients, so
A lawyer and a prosecutor yesterday castigated what they called a lenient ruling by the High Court on Luo Wen-shan (羅文山), whose prison sentence was reduced to two years, which he does not need to serve, after he was convicted for receiving illegal political donations from China to meddle in Taiwan’s elections. Investigators found that Luo, who retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant general, had accepted NT$8.38 million (US$294,604 at the current exchange rate) under the guise of political contributions from Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference member Xu Zhiming (許智明) and people in Hong Kong from 2008 to