Introduction:

Gastrointestinal symptoms associated with COVID-19 can affect between 3 and 39% of patients.

Objective:

Examine the relationship between infection with the virus, the gut microbiota and the presence of digestive symptoms.

Methods:

Bibliographic search in Medline, Pubmed, Scielo, LILACS and Cochrane in the last 6 months of 2020 in English and Spanish languages on the presence of digestive symptoms in COVID-19 patients.

Results:

The lung-intestinal axis is bidirectionally connected, so the metabolites and microbes of the lung can affect the gut microbiota and thus justify the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 will have an impact on that ecosystem. SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection has been confirmed in stool samples even after respiratory sample results have been negative, implying that the fecal-oral mechanism is a possible route of transmission of the disease. Gastrointestinal symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection are: anorexia, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting, the latter is the most common symptom in the pediatric population. Patients who had diarrhea were associated with an unfavorable evolution of the disease, although the hypotheses raised in this regard are not yet confirmed.

Final considerations:

More research is needed on alterations of the gut microbiota, the potential fecal-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the characterization of digestive manifestations in COVID-19 patients. Biosecurity measures are important for the handling of biological waste of the patients.

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