Opinion

... in response to COVID-19 and Diarrhea
  1. Frank Collins Frank Collins United States says:

    As a retired RN who has been studying the professional literature on the coronavirus since February 2020, I would suggest the frequently published hypothesis that COVID-19 is an enterovirus - similar to polio - has documented merit.  It might help to recall virologists and public health experts expended thirty years before they recognized polio was a fecal-transmission pathogen and its “respiratory” spread was on overblown, dubious vector.  

    Like COVID-19, polio can be found in the upper airway/nasopharyngeal region but feces is the critical concern.  The insurmountable hurdles to a successful “confine-and-contain-covid” public health program ?  Open defecation, filthy squat toilets, microplume from flush toilets, lack of water and soap, lax anal/hand hygiene and a clear understanding of germs and how they are spread and cause disease.  Afghanistan and Pakistan are still battling this virus.

    The WHO and CDC both declare, repeatedly, there currently is no evidence of fecal transmission of covid-19.  However, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and the history of medicine has many depressing moments of failure to connect the right dots.  When will this virus produce its own insightful Ignaz Semmelweis or John Snow?

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
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