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As the number of people infected with monkeypox continues to grow in France, ANSES received an urgent request to assess the risk of potential food contamination. For the health agency, this type of transmission is not proven but the risk cannot be “totally excluded”.
Monkeypox is caused by the Monkeypox virus, which is transmitted mainly by direct contact with an infected person as well as by respiratory droplets. The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) was contacted to assess the risk of transmission of the disease through food.
No proven transmission, but a risk not completely excluded
In its conclusions, ANSES recalls that no case of transmission of the monkeypox virus by ingestion of contaminated food has been “proven”. However, the agency underlines that this risk is not excluded, if a food comes to be contaminated by a sick person, “especially if she handles it while she has lesions or scabs on the skin. Food can also be contaminated after contact with a surface that is itself contaminated..
Do not cook if you are injured or have symptoms
By pursuing this scenario, ANSES estimates that “transmission to humans through the food could then occur by ingestion or handling of the contaminated food”. To avoid any risk, the health agency recalls the recommendations concerning the isolation of a sick person. She goes further by recalling that “when you have infected wounds on your hands, whatever their origin, you should not handle food or cook for other people” and adds the other symptoms of monkeypox in this exclusion: rash, fever, headache, fatigue, muscle aches…
Hygiene rules to be strictly observed
Finally, still within the framework of its recommendations, ANSES advises professionals in the catering or agri-food industry to:
- Make workers aware of the symptoms of this virus so that they can declare themselves quickly in the event of infection and allow the effective management of contact persons;
- To apply good hygiene, cleaning and disinfection practices for equipment and premises to limit contamination in spaces that may have been frequented by contaminated people, the virus being persistent in the environment.