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

Throat swabs were obtained from patients on admission. Fecal specimens were first collected in two patients (case 1, 1.5-year-old male; and case 2, 5-year-old male) on day 4 after onset of the disease. While the stool sample from another patient (case 3, 6-year-old female) was obtained 9 days after hospital discharge. To monitor the dynamic changes of viral shedding, we obtained throat swabs from patients every day during hospitalization and every other day during follow-up after discharge. Fecal specimens were collected applying a similar rationale since the first day of sample collection (samples from case 3 were only collected during follow-up period). Presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected by real-time fluorescence reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain reaction (RT-PCR) using a commercial kit approved by the China Food and Drug Administration. Detailed procedures were described elsewhere. 15 author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.