Researchers from Maastricht University, the Hubrecht Institute Utrecht and the Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam have discovered that the coronavirus can infect and multiply intestinal cells.
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The results may explain why a third of corona patients have gastrointestinal complaints, such as nausea and diarrhea.
Therapy
“This discovery may have implications for treatment,” said Peter Peters, Professor of Nanobiology at Maastricht University. “Does the virus go to the lungs or the intestines first? It could well be that the infectious disease starts in the intestines and then spreads to the lungs. But that still needs to be investigated.”
Stool
Other scientists further found that the virus can be detected in human feces even long after patients are free of symptoms. “It should be investigated to what extent and how long the virus remains active in the stool,” said Peters. “This could mean that contamination via the stool is possible.”
The researchers’ findings were published Friday in the scientific journal Science.
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