Fecal dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 virus genome in COVID-19 patients in India
Fecal dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 virus genome in COVID-19 patients in India. Spencer EA, Heneghan C.
https://www.cebm.net/study/fecal-dissemination-of-sars-cov-2-virus-genome-in-covid-19-patients-in-india/
Published on July 16, 2020
Included in
Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19
| Reference |
Senapati S, Kshatri JS, Prasad P et al. A pilot study to investigate the fecal dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 virus genome in COVID-19 patients in Odisha, India. medRxiv 2020.05.26.20113167; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.26.20113167 |
| Study type |
|
| Country |
India |
| Setting |
Hospital |
| Funding Details |
Non Reported |
| Transmission mode |
Orofecal |
| Exposures |
|
Bottom Line
This pilot study in India found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in fecal samples from 12 symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.
Evidence Summary
SARS-CoV-2 RNA was identified in fecal samples from 12 COVID-19 patients, some of whom were asymptomatic Transmission of infectious virus was not confirmed by this study
The study established a protocol to collect and extract viral RNA for SARS-CoV-2 detection in fecal samples.
What did they do?
This was a pilot study to investigate fecal dissemination of the SARS-CoV-2 genome among Indian COVID-19 patients.
Patients admitted to a COVID-19 hospital were tested by nasopharyngeal swab and rectal swab, performed on the same day. These were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Study reliability
This is a pilot study and not sufficiently powered to generate reliable findings – the study sets up the protocol for a large study to investigate possible transmission. It is unclear how the 12 patients for whom data are presented were selected.
| Clearly defined setting |
Demographic characteristics described |
Follow-up length was sufficient |
Transmission outcomes assessed |
Main biases are taken into consideration |
|
Unclear |
Yes |
N/A |
N/A
|
No |
What else should I consider?
It is unclear why patients who were asymptomatic had been admitted as it was a COVID-19 hospital, or if they mean that patients had become asymptomatic during their hospital stay but nevertheless gave nasopharyngeal and rectal samples.
Next research steps are to perform a large study to correlate the significance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome detection in fecal samples with disease severity and transmission.
About the authors
Carl Heneghan
Carl is Professor of EBM & Director of CEBM at the University of Oxford. He is also a GP and tweets @carlheneghan. He has an active interest in discovering the truth behind health research findings
Elizabeth Spencer
Dr Elizabeth Spencer; MMedSci, PhD. Epidemiologist, Nuffield Department for Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.
Tom Jefferson
Tom Jefferson, epidemiologist.
