Oro-faecal transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A systematic review of studies employing viral culture from gastrointestinal and other potential oro-faecal sources and evidence for transmission to humans.

ABSTRACT: The extent to which the oro-faecal route contributes to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is not established.We systematically reviewed the evidence on the presence of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in faeces and other gastrointestinal sources by examining studies that used viral culture to investigate the presence of replication-competent virus in these samples. We conducted searches in the WHO COVID-19 Database, LitCovid, medRxiv, and Google Scholar for SARS-CoV-2 using keywords and associated synonyms, with a search date up to 28 November 2023.We included 13 studies involving 229 COVID-19 subjects - providing 308 faecal or rectal swab SARS-CoV2 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-positive samples tested with viral culture. The methods used for viral culture across the studies w

SUBMITTER: Gandini S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11574600 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature