Filenews 7 August 2021
The elimination time of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with COVID-19 determines the potential and duration of transmission. The Doctors of the Therapeutic Clinic of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Theodora Psaltopoulou, Giannis Danasis, Panos Malandrakis and Thanos Dimopoulos (Rector of EKPA) summarize the latest data from the relevant meta-analysis of D. Yan and collaborators (Front Public Health. 2021 Mar 19;9:652842.).
The analysis included 35 studies and collected data from 3385 covid-19 patients. The average elimination time of SARS-CoV-2 was 16.8 days (14.8 to 19.4 days). The average elimination time was significantly longer for symptomatic patients 19.7 days, (17.2 to 22.7 days) compared to asymptomatic people 10.9 days, (8.3 to 14.3 days).
The average elimination time was 23.2 days (19 to 28.4 days) in adults, which was significantly longer than in children 9.9 days, (8.1 to 12.2 days). In addition, the average elimination time was significantly longer in people with chronic conditions 24.2 days, (19.2 to 30.2 days), compared to people without contracted diseases 11.5 days, (5.3 to 25 days). It is worth noting that patients treated with corticosteroids also had a significantly higher average elimination time 28.3 days, (25.6 to 31.2 days) compared to those not treated with corticosteroids 16.2 days, (11.5 to 22.5 days). This time was significantly longer in fecal samples 30.3 days, (23.1 to 39.2 days) than in respiratory samples 17.5 days, (14.9 to 20.6 days).
In conclusion, prolonged elimination time of the virus was observed in symptomatic infections, adult patients, patients with chronic health problems and in stool samples.
