SARS-CoV-2 was probably already in circulation in Milan in November 2019. ORF.at reports that this has been determined by physicians who have now re-examined a smear taken from a boy admitted to a hospital in Milan with breathing difficulties.
According to orf.at, the four-year-old boy, who had coughed heavily, had been tested for measles in the hospital. The smear was kept in the laboratory at minus 80 degrees and these days researchers from the University of Milan checked for the corona virus. They found that the child was infected with SARS-CoV-2.
A total of 39 swab specimens from individuals with respiratory problems between September 2019 and February 2020 were re-examined in Milan. Only in the case of the child was coronavirus detected. Neither the boy nor his parents had been abroad before the disease.
The examination was carried out by Gian Vincenzo Zuccotti, Head of the Medical Department of the University of Milan. The results were published in the international journal “Emerging Infectious Diseases”. Experts do not rule out that the corona virus has been circulating in Northern Italy since autumn 2019. In Italy, more than 60,000 people have died with or from Covid-19 since the beginning of the epidemic.
hp, Source: ORF.at/agencies. picture: pixabay.com
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