AUTHOR=Massicotte Richard , Assanta Mafu Akier , Rosette Kakese Mukosa 

TITLE=Importance of the Precautionary Principle With Regard to the Risk of Exposure to Aerosols Containing Viral Loads of SARS-CoV-2 Present in Feces: In Perspective

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.892290

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.892290

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=In Covid-19 infection, the emissions of droplets and aerosols produced by the respiratory tract of contaminated subjects may represent a high risk of spreading the SARS-COV-2 virus in the environment. Thus, studies have shown that there is, at least, another source of droplets and aerosols in which SARS-COV-2 viral particles can be found. It happens after the flush to get rid of the stool of a patient who has contracted Covid-19. The presence of SARS-COV-2 virus particles in stool may be related to the concentration of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) found on the surface of intestinal cells. There is therefore reason to wonder whether the emission of viral particles by the activation of a toilet flush could represent a potential risk of contamination for the nursing staff. To investigate this hypothesis, we correlated different studies on the production of droplets and aerosols as well as on the presence of viral particles following flushing. This pooling of these studies led to the following conclusion: the precautionary principle must be applied with regard to the potential risk represented by viral particles of SARV-COV-2 in the stool during flushing.