Hepatitis A, hepatitis E, poliomyelitis, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and some coronaviruses, etc., can "enter from the mouth" and cause human disease. Many people can not help but ask, heard that the virus is not acid resistant. Will the viruses eaten be eliminated by gastric acid? It can be said that gastric acid can "kill" the viruses, but not all viruses.

What is "faecal-oral transmission"?

As the saying goes, "diseases enters by the mouth", which means that diseases will spread through the "faecal-oral route". "Faecal-oral route" refers to that the virus enters the oral cavity through various routes for transmission after being discharged from the body through feces.

For example, when farmers use feces contaminated by viruses to fertilize vegetables, we do not fully wash and cook these foods thoroughly, and people who eat these foods may be infected. For example, if people infected with the virus do not wash their hands after defecation, and touch other people's food or tableware directly with their hands, the partners who eat together will be infected. As the "faecal-oral route" is not elegant, it has now been renamed as digestive tract transmission.

Gastric acid can kill the virus, but there are still some "fish" that escaping the net

The acidity of gastric juice is very high, and the highest pH value can be about 2. In such an acidic environment, many pathogenic microorganisms are indeed unable to survive.

However, the acidity of human gastric acid is not constant. It will be diluted by food and water, resulting in the decrease of acidity. In addition, undigested food masses can also wrap the virus to avoid the attack of gastric acid, and the virus is "safely escorted" into the small intestine. In addition, some viruses have strong acid resistance.

Based on the above factors, there will still be a lot of "fish" that escaping the net after treatment by gastric acid. These missed viruses may cause different degrees of damage to the body. For example, when a normal person ingests 108 Vibrio cholerae, he will have cholera symptoms. When the gastric acid is neutralized by food, only 104 Vibrio cholerae can cause cholera symptoms.

Cutting off the digestive tract transmission and "block the virus out"

The 2019-nCoV is now raging. The 2019-nCoV is mainly transmitted through droplets and can also be transmitted through contact according to the Notice on Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 (Trial Version 4) issued by the National Health Commission. However, the 2019-nCoV is also likely to be transmitted through the digestive tract, according to the Quick Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment of COVID-19 formulated by the expert group of Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Therefore, cutting off the digestive tract transmission may also be an important step to prevent the infection of 2019-nCoV.

In addition to washing and cooking food thoroughly, washing hands before meals and after defecation is the easiest way to cut off the digestive tract transmission. When washing hands, pay attention to the use of soaps, perfumed soaps, hand sanitizers and other cleaning products, and wash with flowing water for at least 20 seconds.

Summary:

• Gastric acid is very powerful, but it can't "kill" all viruses.
• Wash and cook the food thoroughly, and wash hands "before meals and after defecation" to prevent COVID-19 infection.