Researchers found the virus in poop

A staff member moves bio-waste containers past the entrance of the Wuhan Medical Treatment Center in Wuhan, China, where some people infected with the new virus are being treated on January 22, 2020.
Dake Kang/AP

The first US patient with the new corona virus had diarrhea and reported abdominal discomfort the day after he arrived at the hospital, according to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers later detected the corona virus' RNA in his poop.

Another study, shared in the pre-publication repository biorXiv, detected an enzyme signature of the virus in cells from the small intestine and colon.

Patients in China and Vietnam have also had diarrhea, vomited, or reported nausea.

These symptoms could be relatively rare, though: A study published in the pre-print repository medRxiv (which has not been peer-reviewed) looked at data from 1,099 patients. Less than 4% of those people experienced diarrhea and about 5% experienced vomiting.

These uncommon symptoms aren't emphasized in official guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the agency's guidance for healthcare professionals does make a brief mention of diarrhea as an uncommonly reported symptom, along with "a general feeling of being unwell."

Reference: Yahoo News