Recruitment for the CoPS Study is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated or expressed an interest in taking part in this study

SARS-CoV-2 Prevalence and Persistence in Stool

The CoPS Study

Recruitment for the CoPS Study is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated or expressed an interest in taking part in this study

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has quickly developed as a global pandemic with a huge unprecedented impact in health systems worldwide and researchers are trying to understand how the virus behaves in order to fight back.

Preliminary studies have reported that over 60 per cent of COVID-19 positive subjects show gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting. SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in faecal samples of these patients, making them a potential source of oral-faecal transmission. However, most of these studies have been conducted in other countries where conditions might be different.

Researchers at the Quadram Institute, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and James Paget University Hospital are looking to enrol men and women over 18 that live within a 40-mile radius of Norwich and have been tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 2 weeks. 

The CoPS study will investigate how often we find SARS-CoV-2 virus in stool samples of people who test positive for COVID-19, and how long the virus can be detected once COVID-19 symptoms disappear. We also want to understand if the virus in stool samples is identical to the virus in the upper respiratory tract.

If you are over 18 and have been tested positive for COVID-19 and would like to know more, please download the Participant Information Sheet which details what the study is about and what we will be asking you to do.

Thank you for your interest in our research. ecruitment for the CoPS Study is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated or expressed an interest in taking part