It is better to use non-cash payments instead of cash
As of February 13, more than 60,000 cases of coronavirus have been registered worldwide, with 1,363 deaths. The geography of the virus has expanded significantly in recent weeks. The coronavirus has already wreaked havoc on the economy of China and the world. Many companies were forced to close their representative offices in China, and a number of countries interrupted air traffic with the country. Analysts are confident that a new, hitherto unknown virus could have a stronger impact on the global economy than the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Can the virus be transmitted through banknotes?
The rapid spread of coronavirus has caused a wave of rumors about how it can be transmitted from person to person. One of the myths is that coronavirus can be transmitted through banknotes. In fact, such a probability is very small. After all, the main method of infection is by airborne droplets. “The main source of infection is still people already infected with the new type of coronavirus. The likelihood that paper banknotes will become a source of infection is extremely low,” said Zheng Xiaoyan, an expert at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the Chinese city of Fuzhou.
However, new research shows that coronaviruses can live on glass, plastic and metal surfaces for 4-5 days, and in some cases up to 9 days. The good news is that the virus is sensitive to disinfectants, including household bleach.
Geography of the spread of coronavirus. Photo: www.healthmap.org
To avoid contracting the virus, you should follow key recommendations:
- avoid contact with animals
- do not eat raw or poorly processed meat
- avoid contact with people who have signs of illness
- Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly.
Other popular myths about coronavirus transmission
The myth about banknotes is not the only one that has been circulating online in recent weeks. There are opinions that you can become infected through bananas brought from China, as well as through parcels. Ulyana Suprun, former Minister of Health of Ukraine, debunked and these myths. When transporting fruits and goods, the environment is not suitable for the virus to survive.
Note: Due to the reduction of flights to China by most airlines for an indefinite period, Ukrposhta has temporarily stopped accepting all types of shipments to China. As for shipments from China to Ukraine, WHO and the Universal Postal Union have not prohibited the export of mail from Chinese territory. However, delivery times may be extended.
What viruses live on banknotes
Although the coronavirus is not transmitted through banknotes, it should be remembered that many bacteria live on paper money and coins. This is stated in a number of foreign publications. This is because money passes through many hands, and bacteria feed on skin cells and oil deposits that accumulate on bills. In a wallet, the temperature of which is often close to the temperature of the human body, there is a favorable atmosphere for the growth of bacteria.
A few years ago, microbiologists from Queen Mary University of London found that approximately 6% of all British banknotes they tested had a concentration of E. coli comparable to the concentration of this bacteria on a toilet seat.
Another study, conducted by Wright Patterson Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, analyzed 68 old one-dollar bills (by the way, one of the most common paper bills). The results showed that 59 of them (that is, 87% of the bills) contained bacteria that could infect anyone with a weakened immune system, such as people with HIV or cancer.
The most common bacteria found on paper money are Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae (a common cause of pneumonia).
Despite its widespread prevalence and popularity (flu is talked about a lot and often on the eve of each cold season), this disease still remains one of the most mysterious and shrouded in a huge number of myths. Given that the flu can lead to fatal complications, myths are especially inappropriate here. Experts have compiled a list of the most common misconceptions regarding this disease.
Myth 1. The flu can’t be treated: it’s enough to drink enough food and take an antiviral drug
Such a misconception is fraught with death. Flu is an extremely dangerous and contagious disease. It is especially important to start therapy on time for young children under 5 years of age and the elderly. You can’t just take it easy when you have the flu. The virus is stronger than most standard ARVIs. At the same time, it causes serious complications in various organs: kidneys, heart, lungs. Moreover, such complications develop at lightning speed. So the first recommendation is bed rest and taking special antiviral drugs.
Myth 2. When you have the flu, your nose always breathes easily.
In fact, a runny nose with the flu is rare. And then it mainly develops on days 3-4 due to the addition of a secondary bacterial infection. However, from the very first days the nose may become stuffy due to swelling of the mucous membranes, which develops against the background of general intoxication of the body. The virus usually enters the body through the respiratory system, so it naturally attacks the nose first. Against the background of the work of viral particles, intoxication begins, which can be expressed in this way.
Myth 3. You can get infected through money
Everyone knows that influenza virus particles are extremely resistant to environmental influences. Therefore, it is rightly believed that it can persist on various surfaces for 2 weeks, including money. However, today banknotes are often printed on special paper with antiseptic properties. Plus, banknotes are constantly in circulation, so there is little chance of infection through money. But to exclude this possibility, you must follow a simple recommendation: wash your hands after contact with banknotes.
Myth 4. The flu virus is not afraid of frost
In fact, viral particles prefer a thaw. That is why the peak incidence occurs during the slushy time of year. As for winter flu epidemics, the active spread of particles is observed against the backdrop of overcrowding of teams in offices, gardens and schools. After all, the infection is transmitted by airborne droplets.
Myth 5. If the temperature is high and the condition is terrible, you need to take antibiotics
A characteristic feature of the flu is a high temperature: the values immediately jump to 40 degrees. At the same time, the person’s condition is also far from cheerful: muscles ache, bones ache, etc. However, despite the strong belief that antibiotics help with everything, we must remember that they are scientifically called “antibacterial drugs,” i.e. These are the products that are designed to fight bacteria. And the flu is a virus. Therefore, the use of antibiotics will be useless. In addition, it will cause severe damage to the human condition due to weak immunity. Only a doctor can prescribe drugs of this kind for the flu and only in situations where he sees the addition of a secondary infection.
Myth 6. Traditional methods work no worse than medicines
For many, the statement that it is enough to take vitamin complexes and add more garlic, onions and lemon to food to eliminate the risk of infection is undeniable. In fact, such methods help strengthen the immune system, but have no effect on the virus itself. Ideally, to protect yourself, you need to take an integrated approach: avoid crowded places, wash your hands more often, use folk remedies to strengthen the immune system, etc.
During the day, we somehow deal with cash, and banknotes contain a huge number of different bacteria, and if basic hygiene is not observed, this can cause serious harm to our health.
Cash and handling it is another reason to wash your hands more often; this simple precaution will help to avoid many problems, because this way pathogenic bacteria will not enter our body (and simply touching your eyes or mouth is enough for them to get on the mucous membranes of our body) .
According to scientific studies conducted in the USA and Colombia, bacteria contained on banknotes cause the development of infections; in addition, various microorganisms “live” on them, and they can cause diseases against which our immune system will be powerless. There are up to seven different types of bacteria on paper money and coins.
Staphylococcus epidermidis
This type of bacteria can cause infection in various parts of our body. Symptoms may include the following conditions: increased body temperature (fever), fatigue, pain in a certain area, rapid breathing and heart rate, excessive sweating, etc.
Bacilli (rod-shaped bacteria)
Some types of bacilli do not cause any symptoms, but despite this they are also pathogenic, both for humans and animals. Various strains of this bacterium can cause nausea and then diarrhea, usually after 5-10 hours from the moment they enter the body.
Streptococcus
Streptococcus is a very dangerous type of bacteria that causes various diseases, including meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, necrotizing fasciitis, pharyngitis and many others. However, among streptococci there are also bacteria that are not pathogenic for our body.
Escherichia coli
Symptoms caused by infection with this bacterium include severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and sometimes even blood in the stool. In addition, nausea, vomiting and a slight increase in body temperature may occur. All these symptoms appear within three to four to ten days from the moment of infection.
Don't forget to wash your hands!
Many of the above bacteria live in the environment, so it is not difficult to pick them up; it is very easy to do. Pathogenic microorganisms can enter our body through inadvertence if proper precautions and basic hygiene are not observed, such as simply not washing your hands before eating. Remember that many of the bacteria we are exposed to can cause a simple infection, but in some cases they can cause severe gastroenteritis and even death.
Since we will not be able to avoid touching anything, not holding money in our hands and thus avoid contact with various types of bacteria, we should at least remember to wash our hands thoroughly before eating and after handling money, and especially before touching your body or to your child. This simple precaution will help you avoid serious health problems.
Remember...
Coins can contain up to 2,400 bacteria, some of them are also found on paper money, and on them, by the way, the number of bacteria increases as money is passed from hand to hand, so a person can easily become infected with any disease from another human through microbes on a banknote.
Don't forget that coins and paper money are the most common way all over the world to get some kind of infection, so try not to give cash to your children to at least protect them from possible problems. Avoid touching your mouth and eyes after handling money and practice basic hygiene. Money, as they say, does not smell, but this does not mean that it is clean.
Doctors from one of the Russian hospitals proved that the expression “dirty money” is quite logical. They collected bills and coins obtained from different places (from ATMs, change from the market, from a store, etc.), washed them and carried out crops. After two weeks, the obtained analyzes were examined under a microscope. Escherichia coli and staphylococcus are the most harmless inhabitants of banknotes. That is, it turns out that every day every person touches a hotbed of infection and, without knowing it, is subjected to a massive attack of various viruses and bacteria.
As Tver doctors said, through money you can become infected with scabies and the flu. Not to mention a simple intestinal upset or runny nose. However, to find out that it is money that is to blame for the disease, it is impossible not to send the entire wallet to a bacteriological laboratory. Moreover, a contagious centenary coin can pass through dozens, or even hundreds of hands in one day and end up in another pocket a long time ago. Russian scientists not only found out how you can get sick from banknotes, but also compiled a kind of danger rating.
The 10 ruble bills were the dirtiest. And the purest are five hundred and five thousand. However, this is not surprising. After all, tens are the most common banknote. And it is precisely this that most often ends up in the hands of beggars and homeless people who do not care about the sanitary well-being of other citizens. The abundance of infection on banknotes is explained by the fact that banknotes are printed on paper, which is perfectly suitable for the habitat of viruses and bacteria: it is dense, flaky, and after a while it becomes quite tattered.
Moreover, this applies not only to Russian rubles, but also to any currency - from dollars to Mongolian tugriks. For example, causative agents of tuberculosis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, gastroenteritis and genital tract infections have been found on the surface of Indian paper bills. The most dirty money was found in street markets where meat and fish are sold. According to Indian doctors, money contamination occurs due to the habit of merchants to wet their fingers when counting banknotes.
And the likelihood of getting infected from money is so high that Indian authorities strongly advise foreign tourists to thoroughly wash their hands after shopping and before eating. According to Tver doctors, in Russia conductors and salespeople are most likely to get sick from banknotes. However, both of them communicate quite closely with the population. Therefore, the risk group is everyone who holds money in their hands, even on the most joyful day - payday.
State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov, known for a number of unique legislative initiatives, proposed banning parcels from China. The proposal is caused, as you might guess, by the rapid spread of coronavirus in Southeast Asia. The deputy fears that the virus could be delivered to Russia in parcels along with dust. At the same time, the ban should not affect industrial postal items. Milonov’s initiative applies only to parcels from small companies sending goods by mail, since, according to the deputy, one cannot be absolutely sure that small companies comply with sanitary standards.
What does medical science say about this? Is it possible to spread diseases through the mail?
Coronavirus
The notorious coronavirus is a virus of animal origin. It most likely came to humans from bats (less likely from snakes). Currently, the virus spreads only from person to person; it apparently came to us from the animal kingdom only at the very beginning of the epidemic.
Epidemiologists describe the transmission process as follows: the patient sneezes or coughs, particles of sputum settle, for example, on the handrail of a bus, a healthy person grabs the handrail, and then scratches his eye with this hand. The most common route today is through the conjunctiva of the eye. It is important to note that the virus is extremely unstable in the environment. At a humidity of 40% and a temperature of 20 degrees, it can “last” no more than two days, after which it inevitably dies. In addition to the well-known fact that humidity in most regions of Russia rarely exceeds 34-35%, and the temperature in winter drops below 0, you need to remember that parcels from China take much longer than two days to reach Russian cities.
For the same reasons, fears of contracting coronavirus through bananas are completely unfounded.
Flu
The flu, which until recently was practically not feared, being classified as a seasonal cold, has recently caused more and more fears, mainly due to dangerous complications. How likely is it that this disease can be transmitted through the mail?
The influenza virus thrives at temperatures close to 0 degrees and above, up to 60 degrees, and does not tolerate high humidity very well. In an apartment where it is warm and dry, the virus can survive for up to 7 days if it ends up on a steel or plastic surface. On fabric and paper, the virus is much less tenacious, and dies within 40 minutes. Therefore, if the package was received in the summer, contains plastic or metal objects, and was shipped for less than a week, it is theoretically possible that it will still contain a viable virus. Products received in this way must be treated with hot water and soap or a disinfectant solution.
Socially significant diseases
Infectious socially significant diseases include tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis B and C, and HIV.
With sexually transmitted diseases, as well as with hepatitis, everything is more or less clear: of course, there is a household route of transmission of these diseases, but it requires very close contact with the patient, and this is excluded when sending by post. The same applies to HIV. This terrible disease can only be contracted through blood and sexual contact. Therefore, there is no point in fearing infection through a parcel or letter.
As for tuberculosis, everything is somewhat more complicated. The causative agent of this disease (Koch bacillus) is very stable. In dust, in old books, on fabrics, etc., especially if the environment is warm, dark and fairly humid, the tuberculosis pathogen can live for years. Koch's bacillus also tolerates low temperatures; it is not affected by acid, alkali or alcohol. Therefore, theoretically, it is quite possible to receive a package with a “tuberculosis supplement”. However, there is no need to panic. The fact is that Koch's wand exists in abundance around us: on the soil, in dust and on the surface of most objects. However, not everyone gets sick. Only severely weakened, chronically malnourished people, deprived of any immunity, are at risk of contracting tuberculosis.
anthrax
In 2001, immediately after the terrible terrorist attack of September 11, another attack occurred in the United States: letters were sent to several politicians, members of the US Democratic Party, as well as to a number of media offices, which, as it turned out, contained anthrax spores. 22 people became infected, 5 of them died. FBI investigators found microbiologist Bruce Edward Ivins, who worked at the Army Institute of Medical Research of Infectious Diseases, to be the only culprit in this crime.
Whether this is true or not is now impossible to establish, since Ivins committed suicide (according to the lawyer, due to pressure on him from the FBI), but the microbiologist, of course, knew very well that anthrax spores are incredibly high resistance to environmental influences. They cannot be killed either by disinfectants or by high temperatures. Only heat of 140 degrees for two to three hours can destroy them.
It is clear that such resistance makes the anthrax agent almost an ideal tool for an attacker who wants to commit a “postal terrorist attack.” Therefore, it makes sense to be wary of letters from unknown senders, and even those containing some loose substances. You only need to inhale the anthrax spore for infection to become inevitable.
Ringworm
It is theoretically also possible to become infected with this unpleasant disease through a postal parcel. Lichen spores are quite tenacious and can remain viable for years indoors. Therefore, if a worker making a product or a postal worker somewhere on the other side of the earth is sick with lichen, he can, upon contact with the item being sent, “inoculate” it with spores. You can get rid of the pathogen using an iron with a steamer or washing, and if the item is made of metal or plastic, then it should be wiped with chlorhexidine, alcohol or bleach.
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