A recently published report is detailing how Italy’s first coronavirus patient had detectable traces of the virus in her eyes days after it had cleared from her nose, highlighting how the eyes could play a factor in the spread of COVID-19.
The patient, a 65-year-old woman, traveled from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated, to Italy on Jan. 23. She was admitted to a hospital on Jan. 29 one day after experiencing coronavirus symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, stuffy nose and conjunctivitis, commonly known as pinkeye, in both eyes.
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Doctors collected eye swabs from the patient on her third day of admission and found she had detectable infectious particles in her eyes.
Her eyes were consistently swabbed throughout the duration of her hospital stay, and by day 20, the patient’s conjunctivitis had cleared, but traces of genetic material from the coronavirus was still found in her eyes up to day 21. For about five days it wasn’t detected until it showed up again on day 27, days after it was undetectable in her nose.
“SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in ocular swabs days after it was undetectable in nasal swabs,” researchers wrote in the report published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine
Researchers carried out additional tests and determined the virus in her eyes had been replicating, meaning her eyes could be contagious.
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“We found that ocular fluids from SARS-CoV-2 infected patients may contain infectious virus, and hence may be a potential source of infection. These findings highlight the importance of control measures, such as avoiding touching the nose, mouth, and eyes and frequent hand washing,” the researchers wrote.
Aaron Glatt, professor and chair of the department of medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau, told The Washington Post that viral conjunctivitis is extremely contagious, so it’s no surprise the coronavirus could be found in the eyes.
Glatt said the study’s findings could affect public health, but said more research will be needed to determine how widespread the issue is.
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