Italian scientists said they found SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus RNA in samples from a child with suspected measles taken back in November 2019. The discovery refutes the official version about the spread of COVID-19 in Europe, according to which the virus appeared in Italy after about three months. Research article published at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention USA.
The first known case of COVID-19 in Italy was reported in the city of Codogno in the Lombardy region on 21 February 2020. Recently, however, there is increasing evidence that SARS-CoV-2, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, circulated undetected for several weeks in Lombardy before official detection. Phylogenetic studies suggest that the virus was introduced to Italy from China and Germany.
The authors of the work stated that at the end of autumn 2019 in Milan, there were more frequent cases when the test results of patients with suspected measles turned out to be negative. The specialists tested oropharyngeal swab samples collected between September 2019 and February 2020 from 39 volunteers using PCR analysis. One sample tested positive for Wuhan SARS-CoV-2, but the exact strain was not identified.
Traces of the virus were found in a four-year-old boy who developed a cough and a runny nose on November 21 last year. A week later, he was taken to the intensive care unit of the hospital with respiratory symptoms and vomiting. On December 1, he developed a measles-like rash, and on December 5 (14 days after the onset of symptoms) an oropharyngeal swab was taken for a measles test.