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  • Gastrointestinal symptoms a...
    Natarajan, Aravind; Zlitni, Soumaya; Brooks, Erin F; Vance, Summer E; Dahlen, Alex; Hedlin, Haley; Park, Ryan M; Han, Alvin; Schmidtke, Danica T; Verma, Renu; Jacobson, Karen B; Parsonnet, Julie; Bonilla, Hector F; Singh, Upinder; Pinsky, Benjamin A; Andrews, Jason R; Jagannathan, Prasanna; Bhatt, Ami S

    Med, 06/2022, Volume: 3, Issue: 6
    Journal Article

    COVID-19 manifests with respiratory, systemic, and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detected in respiratory and fecal samples, and recent reports demonstrate viral replication in both the lung and intestinal tissue.2, 3, 4 Although much is known about early fecal RNA shedding, little is known about long-term shedding, especially in those with mild COVID-19. Furthermore, most reports of fecal RNA shedding do not correlate these findings with GI symptoms. . We analyzed the dynamics of fecal RNA shedding up to 10 months after COVID-19 diagnosis in 113 individuals with mild to moderate disease. We also correlated shedding with disease symptoms. Fecal SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detected in 49.2% 95% confidence interval, 38.2%-60.3% of participants within the first week after diagnosis. Whereas there was no ongoing oropharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding in subjects at 4 months, 12.7% 8.5%-18.4% of participants continued to shed SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the feces at 4 months after diagnosis and 3.8% 2.0%-7.3% shed at 7 months. Finally, we found that GI symptoms (abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting) are associated with fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The extended presence of viral RNA in feces, but not in respiratory samples, along with the association of fecal viral RNA shedding with GI symptoms suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infects the GI tract and that this infection can be prolonged in a subset of individuals with COVID-19. This research was supported by a Stanford ChemH-IMA grant; fellowships from the AACR and NSF; and NIH R01-AI148623, R01-AI143757, and UL1TR003142.