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In the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, doctors at a hospital in northern Paris describe data from 14 patients treated for atypical pneumonia between early December and mid-January. Among these patients was Amirouche Hammar, a 42-year-old Algerian fish seller, who has lived in France for many years and did not travel anywhere before falling ill.
Hammar told French radio station BFM-TV on Tuesday that he went to the hospital reception one very early morning in late December because he was feeling very ill, had chest pain and was having trouble breathing.
“They said, ‘You may have an infection, a lung infection, but it’s still unclear. But what you have is very serious, very serious because you are coughing up blood. It is not a normal flu, “he said.
Hammar was hospitalized, and his symptoms, according to doctors, were similar to those seen in patients with COVID-19 in China and Italy. Doctors re-analyzed A. Hammar’s old sample, which showed coronavirus infection.
“Identifying the first infected patient is epidemiologically very interesting because it significantly changes our knowledge about the spread of the coronavirus,” wrote Dr. Yves Cohenas. This intensive care specialist works in the northern suburbs of Paris, where A. Hammar lives. These suburbs were particularly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hammar, who later recovered, does not appear to have transmitted the virus to anyone else. According to Cohen and colleagues, their results suggest that there may have been more undetected cases of COVID-19 in the country even before the disease was officially detected in Europe.
However, the researchers acknowledge that the study, the findings of which were published online Sunday, was conducted retrospectively, so “medical records were incomplete and important information may be missing.”
Other experts said the study results are interesting but not entirely convincing.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said such results may have been due to laboratory contamination.
“If I was infected [koronavirusu]then we could expect a faster and earlier spread of the virus in France than we have seen, “he said in a statement. Ball was not involved in the study in question.
“The sequence of any sample of a virus could provide data on whether it was … really an early single [atvejis]or contamination is likely, but the data shows that the amount of virus in the sample was low, which would make further analysis difficult, ”he said.
Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, said that even if the case were confirmed as COVID-19, he did not confirm that the virus had begun to spread in Europe earlier than expected.
“There will probably be many examples of infected people around the world going to uninfected places, but there was no transmission of the virus,” he said.
Christian Lindmeier of the World Health Organization called the study “exciting news”. He said the study could help scientists better understand the evolution of the new coronavirus.
“It just caught our eye then. It would be nice if all countries that have unclear cases of lung infections in the past few months (December or even November) screen them for COVID-19,” he said.
“The government is responding (to the news) and collaborating with scientists and experts who can confirm (or refute) this discovery.” The second step is further investigation, if necessary, ”a spokesman for the French Ministry of Health said in an email on Monday.
According to Politico, if this information is confirmed, the chronology of the circulation of the new coronavirus will change. China announced the outbreak of the new coronavirus to the World Health Organization on December 31. France recorded the first two known cases of COVID-19 in Europe on January 24.
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