Watching for nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea could help contain the outbreak

Health workers wear full protective clothing during a clean up operation at Amoy Gardens in Hong Kong, where over 200 residents were infected with SARS, April 4, 2003.

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This is not the first time scientists have found a corona virus in patients' poop. Research indicated that SARS traveled through a Hong Kong apartment's sewage system to infect some residents after one sick person had diarrhea.

Dr. Susan Kline, a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told MedPage Today that gastrointestinal symptoms were "not unusual" in SARS patients during the virus's deadly 2003 outbreak.

The corona virus has killed more than 1,000 people — a higher death toll in six weeks than SARS had in eight months.

Kline said that many illnesses cause nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, even if those aren't the primary symptoms. Looking for them can be crucial in the early stages of a new outbreak, as it was with SARS and Ebola.

"It was not recognized early on that [Ebola] patients had prominent diarrhea. Later, as [there were] reports of large numbers of patients, it became more obvious that it could be a predominant part of the illness," Kline said.

Kline added that it's important not to assume that all patients will have gastrointestinal problems, though. Still, including those symptoms in official guidelines could help catch more corona virus cases early on. 

"That would be helpful for clinicians to have, so they could at least consider that a patient with novel corona-virus might have vomiting or diarrhea," she said.

Have you been personally impacted by the corona-virus epidemic? Is your city or community on the front lines of this disease? Have you or someone you know been tested or diagnosed?

Reference: yahoo News