Evaluation of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in vaginal and anal swabs of women with omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Ding Liu; Yunfu Zhang; Dongfeng Chen; Xianhua Wang; Fuling Huang; Ling Long; Xiuhui Zheng

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.1035359

Evaluation of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in vaginal and anal swabs of women with omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Front Microbiol. 2022 Nov 8:13:1035359. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1035359. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ding Liu¹, Yunfu Zhang², Dongfeng Chen³, Xianhua Wang⁴, Fuling Huang⁴, Ling Long⁴, Xiuhui Zheng⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Disease Prevention and Control, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.
² Department of Medical Affair and Research, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.
³ Department of Gastroenterology, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.
⁴ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant could be detected in the vaginal fluid and anal swabs of reproductive-aged and postmenopausal women infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

Methods: Included in this study were 63 women who were laboratory confirmed as having SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection and admitted to the responsible ward of Daping Hospital of at the National Exhibition and Convention Center(Shanghai) Makeshift Hospital from May 1-24, 2022.From them, vaginal and anal swabs were obtained with informed consent. The demographic and baseline clinical characteristics and the swab test results were analyzed.

Results: The 63 included patients ranged in age from 18 to 72 years with a median of 47.71 ± 15.21 years. Of them, 38 women (60.3%) were in their reproductive years. Most of the participants (77.8%) were healthy without significant underlying diseases. Fourteen patients (22.2%) had asymptomatic infection and the remaining 49 (77.8%) had mild infection. The upper respiratory tract symptoms including cough (40/63.5%) and sore throat (18/28.6%)were the most common clinical manifestations of these mildly infected patients. Only 5 patients (7.8%) had gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, including simple diarrhea in 4 patients, and diarrhea with vomiting in one patient. Pharyngeal,vaginal and anal swabs were collected simultaneously from all 63 patients 8-16 (mean 11.25 ± 2.23) days after SARS-Cov-2 Omicron variant infection. The vaginal swabs were negative for SARS-CoV-2 in all 63 patients, and the anal swabs were positive in 4 patients (6.5%). The overall median hospitalization duration was 16.73 ± 3.16 days.

Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that there is a low possibility of SARS-Cov-2 Omicron variant transmission via the digestive tract and vaginal fluid. The correlation between the GI symptoms and the presence of viral RNA in anal swabs is uncertain.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; anal swab; coronavirus; omicron; vaginal fluid.