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eat Chinese, receive packages from China … is it risky?

Can you get nCov 2019 coronavirus while eating Chinese? The question can give a smile but some French people really wonder. As certain press articles reveal, the SAMU even receives calls “Panicked” of people who ate Chinese. Same thing for packages arriving from China. Some consumers question themselves.

Appeared at the start of December in a market in Wuhan, the coronavirus has already killed 170 people in China and nearly 8,000 infected. In France, six patients have been affected by the virus. We take stock:

Packages imported from China

Questioned by Le Figaro, Manuel Rosa-Calatrava, director of research at Inserm and co-director of the VirPath virology laboratory in Lyon, first explains that respiratory viruses – which includes the coronavirus nCov 2019 – are transmitted in two ways. First by respiratory secretions (postillions, sneezing). Secondly by surface contamination (example: sneezing in your hands then shaking someone’s hand).

According to Manuel Rosa-Calatrava, “The risk of surface contamination by respiratory viruses is real but very dependent on environmental conditions”. In fact, respiratory viruses are fragile and do not remain functional, in other words active, for very long (a few hours to a few days at most depending on the temperature and humidity of the air). “A package arriving from China takes several weeks of transport by boat and several days by plane. A potential virus would be in an environment that is absolutely not favorable to remain functional ”, says Manuel Rosa-Calatrava. Same story on the side of the Ministry of Health. “Given the times and conditions of transport with China, the risk of being infected with nCoV by touching an object imported from China is considered to be extremely low”, can we read on his site.

Concretely, even if an individual contaminated by the coronavirus handled a package in China bound for France, it is almost impossible that the recipient has a chance of being infected. The researcher specifies “That one of the simple and very effective measures to avoid contamination by respiratory viruses is to wash your hands several times a day”.

»See also – #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus: Asians denounce racism linked to the coronavirus epidemic

Food from China

What about food? “In the scientific literature, there have never been any reported cases of respiratory viruses caught by ingesting cooked food. When food is cooked, respiratory viruses do not resist and are completely inactivated by heat ”, explains Manuel Rosa-Calatrava. The Ministry of Health also explains in a press release that “Viruses are destroyed when the meat is cooked”. Even if the food is uncooked, as in packages, respiratory viruses are fragile and do not remain functional for very long because of the duration and conditions of transport.

However, “The consumption of undercooked or undercooked animal products, including milk and meat, presents a significant risk of infection by a wide variety of organisms capable of causing disease in humans (Editor’s note: non-respiratory pathogenic organisms) “, completes the Ministry of Health. In this regard, Manuel Rosa-Calatrava advises to wash food well and make sure it is healthy.

Contacted by Le Figaro, the French chain of Asian supermarkets “Tang frères” – which supplies most of the Asian restaurants and grocery stores in France – indicates for its part that there is “No risk in consuming food products imported from China or Asia”. In addition, the secretary general of Tang Frères, Christophe Polini, explains that the channel “Does not import products from the Wuhan region (Editor’s note: region where the virus appeared)”.

“We must not enter into a psychosis”, says Manuel Rosa-Calatrava. “We are at the height of the flu epidemic in all regions of France. Between 5,000 and 15,000 people die from the flu each year. There is much more risk today of catching the flu by taking the subway or the RER than of catching the coronavirus 2019-nCoV “, concludes the researcher.

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