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Case Reports
. 2020 Dec 2:7:562700.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2020.562700. eCollection 2020.

Persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA Positive in Feces but Negative in Breastmilk: A Case Report of COVID-19 in a Breastfeeding Patient

Huikuan Chu  1 , Jing Li  1 , Jingjing Yan  1 , Tai Bai  1 , Bernd Schnabl  2 , Li Zou  3 , Ling Yang  1 , Xiaohua Hou  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA Positive in Feces but Negative in Breastmilk: A Case Report of COVID-19 in a Breastfeeding Patient

Huikuan Chu et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

COVID-19 is a pandemic infectious disease. Whether SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted through breast milk is unknown. Here, we report a breastfeeding woman with COVID-19 presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms and persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA positivity in both her oropharyngeal swabs and feces, but negativity in her breastmilk. After appearance of serum SARS-CoV-2-IgG, she began to bottle feed her baby with breastmilk without transmission. This report facilitates the understanding of breastfeeding-related risks in COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 RNA; breastfeeding; breastfeeding transmission; fecal-oral transmission.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Change of body temperature for the patient and her baby. The solid black line represents the lower limit of fever for subjects. The body temperature for the patient is higher from the 3rd day to the 8th day. The body temperature for the patient was in normal range during the following days including the breastfeeding period. And, the body temperature for the breast-fed baby was also in normal range during the 1-month follow up.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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