Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is thought to be caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-associated coronavirus. We studied viral shedding of SARS coronavirus to improve diagnosis and infection control. Reverse-transcriptase PCR was done on 2134 specimens of different types. 355 (45%) specimens of nasopharyngeal aspirates and 150 (28%) of faeces were positive for SARS coronavirus RNA. Positive rates peaked at 6-11 days after onset of illness for nasopharyngeal aspirates (87 of 149 [58%], to 37 of 62 [60%]), and 9-14 days for faeces (15 of 22 [68%], to 26 of 37 [70%]). Overall, peak viral loads were reached at 12-14 days of illness when patients were probably in hospital care, which would explain why hospital workers were prone to infection. Low rate of viral shedding in the first few days of illness meant that early isolation measures would probably be effective.

Keywords

Viral sheddingCoronavirusFecesCoronaviridaeMedicineVirologyIsolation (microbiology)Respiratory systemSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Viral loadCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)ImmunologyVirusInternal medicineBiologyMicrobiologyDisease

MeSH Terms

AdultAgedCoronavirusFecesFemaleHumansInfectious Disease TransmissionPatient-to-ProfessionalMaleMiddle AgedNasopharynxRNAViralRespiratory SystemReverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain ReactionSensitivity and SpecificitySevere Acute Respiratory SyndromeViral LoadVirus Shedding

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Publication Info

Year
2004
Type
article
Volume
363
Issue
9422
Pages
1699-1700
Citations
343
Access
Closed

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Peter K.C. Cheng, Derek A. Wong, Louis K.L. Tong et al. (2004). Viral shedding patterns of coronavirus in patients with probable severe acute respiratory syndrome. The Lancet , 363 (9422) , 1699-1700. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(04)16255-7

Identifiers

DOI
10.1016/s0140-6736(04)16255-7
PMID
15158632
PMCID
PMC7112423

Data Quality

Data completeness: 86%