Detection and community-wide prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool samples of adult and pediatric patients [Funder: McMaster University COVID-19 Research Fund and Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that is increasingly recognized as affecting multiple organ systems, including the gastrointestinal tract. While respiratory manifestations continue to be most recognized and associated with acute mortality, gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea may also present. Shedding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus known to cause COVID-19, has been demonstrated in feces. A novel PCR-based assay was recently developed through our regional laboratory program to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool. By performing screening for COVID-19 on all diarrheal samples submitted to our regional microbiology laboratory for infectious disease testing, we will be able to generate importance community-wide prevalence data that can be compared to diagnostic test results from other sources, and patient clinical characteristics. These results may be used to establish a community-wide prevalence of COVID-19 fecal viral shedding among patients with diarrhea, establish differences in these results between adults and children, determine how these results may differ based on respiratory symptoms, or positive COVID-19 detection through nasopharyngeal swab (NPS), and whether fecal viral shedding represents a potential source for community and iatrogenic transmission via fecal-oral routes.