No sign of Rotavirus co-infection in COVID-19 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms

Milad Zandi¹+, Saber Soltani¹+, Riam Sadooni², Shokrollah Salmanzadeh³, Yousef Erfani⁴, Ramin Shahbahrami⁴, Maghsud Piri², Reza Pakzad⁵, Nasrin Ghodratifard², Alireza Eftekhari Moghadam², Samaneh Abbasi⁶*

1. Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2. Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran
3. Infectious and tropical diseases research center, Health research institute, Faculty of medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
4. Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5. Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health, Ilam University Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
6. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Abadan University of Medical sciences, Abadan, Iran

• Dr. Milad Zandi and Dr. Saber Soltani contributed equally

*Corresponding Author: Samaneh Abbasi; E-mail: s_abbasi80@yahoo.com

Abstract
Background and Aims
The main goal of the present study is to investigate the incidence of Rotavirus co-infection in COVID-19 patients.
Methods and Results
Fecal samples of COVID-19 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms which had positive PCR- were collected from Abadan’s hospital, Iran during the period December 2020 to January 2021. Samples were analyzed by RT-PCR to determine the presence of Rotavirus. Finally, the total samples size of 37 were included in this study. The mean age of patients was 48.22 years. Abdominal pain alone was detected in 48.65% of the patients. At least one gastrointestinal symptom was detected in all of the patients. Diarrhea and fever were seen in 13.51% and 59.46% of patients, respectively. Nausea and vomiting were seen in 5.41% of the patients. RT-PCR showed no infection of Rotavirus among the patients.
Conclusion
Gastrointestinal symptoms related to COVID-19 are common. More studies is need among these patients groups for investigate co-infection with other fecal viral shedding carries, due to a worse prognosis and its association with disease severity.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Rotavirus, Gastrointestinal symptoms