Street food as potential sources of covid-19 disease propagation in central and West Africa: A short review

Abstract

In December 2019, a local pneumonia outbreak of initially unknown cause was detected in Wuhan (Hubei, China) and was quickly determined to be caused by a novel coronavirus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This pandemic spread very quickly around the world and has begun its proliferation in Africa. Respect of hygienic rules is one of the best preventive methods. This study explored street ready to eat foods as potential vehicle of human contamination with SARSCoV-2. For this, a bibliographic search was carried out from March 15 to December 7, 2020. From the results, it is well known that the transmission of the coronavirus by direct digestive route is ruled out for now. However, some studies are trying to demonstrate gastrointestinal manifestations and potential fecal-oral transmission of the virus. So ready to eat foods such as fruits and vegetables, bread, chips, donut, gari, snacks, homemade yogurt, cake, fried yam, roasted products, kilichi, ... etc. should get particular attention due to potential risk of contamination by manipulators during conditioning and packaging, to prevent the proliferation of the virus. It then becomes urgent to engage the population’s attention concerning what and where they eat.