SynthesisThe Journal of infection2020
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in fecal specimens of patients with confirmed COVID-19: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in The Journal of infection, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gut distress and interventionFrontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Wastewater surveillance to infer COVID-19 transmission: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- Prevalence and Persistent Shedding of Fecal SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Patients With COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical and translational gastroenterology · 2021Pooled it
- Frequency, dynamics, and duration of faecal shedding in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals, a scoping review.Epidemiology and infection · 2026Article
- Wastewater-based surveillance as a proactive public health tool: insights from SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in Kampala, Uganda (2023-2024).BMC public health · 2026Article
- Budget impact of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 in a large urban jail: an activity-based cost analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Gastrointestinal Infiltration in Influenza Virus Infection: Mechanisms and Clinical Insights.Viruses · 2025Review
- Decay pattern of SARS-CoV-2 RNA surface contamination in real residences.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Excretion of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in feces has no prognostic benefit in the outcome of COVID-19: A clinical and immunological study.Biomolecules & biomedicine · 2024Article
- Association Between SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Acute Ischemic Colitis.Journal of inflammation research · 2024Article
- Multiplex One-Step RT-qPCR Assays for Simultaneous Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Enteric Viruses of Dogs and Cats.Viruses · 2023Article
- Faecal Viral Excretion and Gastrointestinal Co-Infection Do Not Explain Digestive Presentation in COVID-19 Patients.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Dietary intervention with functional foods modulating gut microbiota for improving the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.Heliyon · 2023Review
- Herbal medicine in the treatment of COVID-19 based on the gut-lung axis.Acupuncture and herbal medicine · 2022Review
- Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 spike RNA sequences in feces and nasopharynx indicates intestinal replication.Gut pathogens · 2022Article
- Monitoring COVID-19 spread in Prague local neighborhoods based on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater collected throughout the sewer network.Water research · 2022Article
- Postinfection Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Gut and liver · 2022Review
- Early warning of a COVID-19 surge on a university campus based on wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 at residence halls.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Case series of HIV SARS-CoV-2 co-infection in Chinese adults.Journal of clinical virology plus · 2022Article
- Revealing In Silico that Bacteria's Outer Membrane Proteins may Help our Bodies Replicate and Carry Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.Bioinformatics and biology insights · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionRecent studies showed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA may be found in fecal specimens of COVID-19 patients, but the sample size is limited. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in fecal specimens of these patients according to their clinical characteristics.
methodsMEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and three Chinese biomedical databases were searched up to 25 March 2020 with no language restriction. We included original observational studies that reported the detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in fecal specimens of COVID-19 patients. Two separate reviewers conducted the review. Metaprop was adopted to conduct a meta-analysis of prevalence with variances stabilized by Freeman-Tukey Double Arcsine Transformation. A random-effects model was used. Heterogeneity across different studies was computed using Cochran's Q test and chi square statistics.
resultsFrom 17 studies, the pooled detection rate of fecal SARS-CoV-2 RNA was 43.7% (95% CI 32.6%-55.0%) and 33.7% (95% C.I. 33.7%, 95% C.I. 20.1%-48.8%) by patient and number of specimens as a unit count, respectively. Female individuals (59.6% vs. 53.5%), those who presented with gastrointestinal symptoms (77.1% vs. 57.7%), and patients with more severe disease (68.3% vs. 34.6%) tended to have a higher detection rate. DISCUSSION: A significant proportion of COVID-19 patients carry SARS-CoV-2 in their intestinal tract. Feces being a self-collected specimen bears a potential to improve case identification in community, especially for young children where proper respiratory sampling at home is difficult. Specific infection control strategies focusing on spread via fecal contamination and faulty toilet drainage are urgently needed.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.