A research of 400 specimens from 14 #covid19 patients by #CUHK found that 3 of the 14 patients still had virus in their stool samples after their respiratory samples are all clear. The amount of virus in stool samples is comparable to those in deep throat saliva.
More from this research.
At this stage, CUHK's researchers have NOT tested whether the virus in the stool samples are dead fragments or living virus. if they are living virus or can breed living virus, they are infectious.
The researchers are suggesting to add stool sample test as a supplementary test to deep throat saliva test for patients who do not have sputum, for 1) among the samples examined, saliva samples had a 42% false negative rate and 2) stool samples are easier to collect.
Researchers explain that the false negative rate of deep throat saliva tests may be due to wrong way to provide saliva by the patients. Patients should, before everything else in the morning, sniffle and get the nasal discharge back into their throat then spit in the test tube.
After all researchers advise all members of the public to pay close attention to hand hygiene, particularly for care takers and people in food preparation work, as gastrointestinal tract is also an important transmission route, directly and indirectly.
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