Persistence of SARS-COV-2 in body fluids: a bystander or whistle blower
Abstract
The novel Coronavirus COVID-19 is wrecking a havoc across the globe and has been declared as a pandemic by WHO. Apart from transmission and shedding of the virus through respiratory secretions in the form of droplets (mainly), several studies have shown the presence of the virus in various samples such as stool, urine and occasionally in blood, semen, tears and breastmilk. Whereas government authority guidelines consider a person as cured from COVID-19 when along with clinical improvement no more virus can be detected primarily on respiratory samples along with clinical improvement; the persistence of the virus in these body fluids even after clinical recovery and negative RT-PCR test results on respiratory samples, has raised many questions about the elusive nature of this novel virus along with the possibility of other routes of transmission of this virus in the community. Although studies performed till now across the globe on persistence of SARS-COV-2 in various body fluids are sparse, in this review we would like to present and analyse the results of those studies performed globally on the aforesaid topic to get a better insight of this side of the COVID-19 story.
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25. Groß R, Conzelmann C, Müller JA, Stenger S, Steinhart K, Kirchhoff F, et al. Detection of SARS-COV-2 in human breastmilk. Lancet 2020;395:1757-1758.
2. Chen C, Gao G, Xu Y, Pu L, Wang Q, Wang L, et al. SARS-CoV-2-positive sputum and feces after Conversion of pharyngeal samples in patients with COVID-19. Ann Intern Med 2020;172:832-834.
3. Wang W, Xu Y, Gao R, Lu R, Han K, Wu G, et al. Detection of SARS-COV-2 in different types of clinical specimens. JAMA 2020;323(18):1843-1844.
4. Jin Y-H, Cai L, Cheng Z-S, Cheng H, Deng T, Fan Y-P, et al. A rapid advice guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infected pneumonia (standard version). Mil Med Res 2020;7:4.
5. Long Q, Tang X, Shi Q, Li Q, Deng HJ, Yuan J, et al. Clinical and immunological assessment of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. Nat Med 2020;26:1200-1204.
6. Amirian ES. Potential fecal transmission of SARS-CoV-2: Current evidence and implications for public health. Int J Infect Dis 2020;95:363-370.
7. Han C, Duan C, Zhang S, Spiegel B, Shi H, Wang W, et al. Digestive symptoms in COVID-19 patients with mild disease severity: clinical presentation, stool viral RNA testing, and outcomes. Am J Gastroenterol 2020;115:916-923.
8. Zheng S, Fan J, Yu F, Feng B, Lou B, Zou Q, et al. Viral load dynamics and disease severity in patients infected with SARS-COV-2 in Zhejiang province, Ca, January-March 2020: retrospective cohort study. BMJ 2020;369:m1443.
9. Ling Y, Xu S-B, Lin Y-X, Tian D, Zhu Z-Q, Dai F-H, et al. Persistence and clearance of viral RNA in 2019 novel coronavirus disease rehabilitation patients. Chin Med J (Engl) 2020;133:1039-1043.
10. Xu Y, Li X, Zhu B, Liang H, Fang C, Gong Y, et al. Characteristics of pediatric SARS-COV-2 infection and potential evidence for persistent fecal viral shedding. Nat Med 2020;26:502-505.
11. Zhang W, Du R-H, Li B, Zheng X-S, Yang X-L, Hu B, et al. Molecular and serological investigation of 2019-nCoV infected patients: implication of multiple shedding routes. Emerg Microbes Infect 2020; 9:386-389.
12. Wölfel R, Corman VM, Guggemos W, Seilmaier M, Zange S, Müller MA, et al. Virological assessment of hospitalized patients with COVID-2019. Nature 2020;581:465-469.
13. Goh GK, Dunker AK, Foster JA, Uversky VN. Shell disorder analysis suggests that pangolins offered a window for a silent spread of an attenuated SARS-CoV-2 precursor among humans. J Proteome Res 2020; 19: 4543-4552.
14. Liu L, Wei Q, Alvarez X, Wang H, Du Y, Zhu H. Epithelial cells lining salivary gland ducts are early target cells of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in the upper respiratory tracts of rhesus macaques. J Virol 2011;85:4025-4030.
15. Chang L, Zhao L, Gong H, Wang L, Wang L. Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 RNA detected in blood donations. Emerg Infect Dis 2020; 26: 1631-1633.
16. Azzi L, Carcano G, Gianfagna F, Grossi P, Gasperina DD, Genoni A, et al .Saliva is a reliable tool to detect SARS-CoV-2. J Infect 2020;81: e45-e50.
17. To KK, Tsang OT, Yip CC, Chan KH, Wu TC, Chan JM, et al. Consistent detection of 2019 novel Coronavirus in Saliva. Clin Infect Dis 2020;71:841-843.
18. Jun ISY, Anderson DE, Kang AEZ, Wang L-F, Rao P, Young BE, et al. Assessing viral shedding and infectivity of tears in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Ophthalmology 2020;127:977-979.
19. Gu J, Han B, Wang J. COVID-19: gastrointestinal manifestations and potential fecal–oral transmission. Gastroenterology 2020;158:1518-1519.
20. Xia J, Tong J, Liu M, Shen Y, Guo D. Evaluation of coronavirus in tears and conjunctival secretions of patients with SARS-COV-2 infection. J Med Virol 2020;92:589-594.
21. Li D, Jin M, Bao P, Zhao W, Zhang S. Clinical characteristics and results of semen tests among men with coronavirus disease 2019. JAMA Netw Open 2020;3(5): e208292.
22. Qiu L, Liu X, Xiao M, Xie J, Cao W, Liu Z, et al. SARS-CoV-2 is not detectable in the vaginal fluid of women with severe COVID-19 infection. Clin Infect Dis 2020;71:813-817.
23. Peng L, Liu J, Xu W, Luo Q, Chen D, Lei Z, et al. SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in urine, blood, anal swabs, and oropharyngeal swabs specimens. J Med Virol 2020; 92:1676-1680.
24. Sun J, Zhu A, Li H, Zheng K, Zhuang Z, Chen Z, et al. Isolation of infectious SARS-CoV-2 from urine of a COVID-19 patient. Emerg Microbes Infect 2020;9:991-993.
25. Groß R, Conzelmann C, Müller JA, Stenger S, Steinhart K, Kirchhoff F, et al. Detection of SARS-COV-2 in human breastmilk. Lancet 2020;395:1757-1758.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 12 No 5 (2020) | |
| Section | Review Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijm.v12i5.4596 | |
| Keywords | ||
| COVID19; Coronavirus; Body fluid; Viremia | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
How to Cite
1.
Bora I, Gogoi S, Venkatasubramanian V, Mathew R, Mohindra R. Persistence of SARS-COV-2 in body fluids: a bystander or whistle blower. Iran J Microbiol. 2020;12(5):370-375.
