Prolonged presence of SARS-CoV-2 in feces of pediatric patients during the convalescent phase

Yuhan Xing; Wei Ni; Qin Wu; Wenjie Li; Guoju Li; Jianning Tong; Xiufeng Song; Quansheng Xing

While we were closely monitoring the dynamic changes of fecal SARS-CoV-2 in our patients, a 6-year-old boy in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, was reported to be under more than 34 days of hospitalization due to prolonged presence of viral RNA in stools after showing negative in respiratory samples. Actually, this phenomenon is not rare among pediatric patients. 27 Xiao and colleagues demonstrated that about a quarter of COVID-19 patients had SARS-CoV-2 RNA detectable in feces after viral clearance in respiratory tract. 25 However, the researchers did not discuss whether persistent shedding of SARS-CoV-2 was more common in certain age group than the others (patient's ages ranged from 10 months to 78 years in this study). Therefore, discharged patients might be a potential source of transmission and follow-up after hospital discharge or discontinuation of quarantine is advisable. The limitations of this study should also be noted. In response to the emerging disease, only respiratory specimens were required for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 according to clinical guidelines in the early stage of COVID-19 outbreak. We therefore failed to obtain stool samples from the patients during their first few days of hospitalization and could not determine whether throat swabs and fecal samples showed positive on RT-PCR analysis simultaneously. Moreover, we did not culture the virus isolated from the feces to test the viability nor measure viral loads in the samples due to limited conditions. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.