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A team of scientists working in the northeastern city of Colmar reported in mid-May that they had detected two x-rays taken on November 16. and 18 days showing characteristic symptoms of the new coronavirus. NBC News has exclusive access to these photos.
If this information is true, it shows that the new coronavirus began to spread in Europe two months before the first cases were detected in France on January 24. and long before his COVID-19 disease was officially diagnosed in China, reports nbcnews.com.
The news came a week after another team of scientists in Paris discovered that the patient had a coronavirus on December 27. Until now, this is the oldest known case of COVID-19 in Europe.
Officials from the Chinese city of Uhan confirmed the existence of a disease then unknown to the World Health Organization (WHO) unit in China on December 31, but only on January 7. The unknown disease was found to be a new type of coronavirus.
Intelligence agencies in the United States (US) had intelligence in November showing a possible public health crisis in Wuhan.
Scientists believe that it is necessary to detect the spread of the disease at the beginning of an outbreak to understand how to protect people and avoid a second wave.
“We can only manage the future by understanding the past,” said Dr. Michel Schmitt, who works at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Colmar. “Obviously, we don’t understand this outbreak today.”
Under the leadership of dr. Schmitt, his radiology staff, has spent the past few weeks reviewing thousands in 2019. Chest x-rays taken at the end of
The pulmonologist dr. Vinas Gupta, a health expert at the University of Washington in collaboration with NBC News, examined the radiographs as he wrote the article and concluded that the injuries seen on them were consistent with the injuries he had found in treating patients with COVID-19. .
He said the radiographs showed evidence of “atypical pneumonia.”
“The lesions in the photos correspond to the damage caused by the new coronavirus infection, especially at the beginning of the disease, when there are abnormalities in some parts of the lungs, but not in all the lungs,” he said.
In most cases, the health of patients with such abnormalities “was not at high risk.”
Dr. Schmitt urges you not to rush to draw conclusions from the first results of your study. Together with his team, the doctor analyzed nearly 2,500 chest x-rays taken from 2019. November 1 through April, looking for specific COVID-19 violations.
In addition to the two possible coronavirus cases in November, they identified 12 probable cases in December and 16 in January. Later, the numbers start to grow dramatically.
If the virus arrived in France in 2019. in the fall, not 2020. In February (and it spread rapidly in the country in March), the significance of this discovery to public health is believed to be enormous.
“This information could fundamentally change the government’s strategy to combat the coronavirus,” he added. M. Schmittas.
While his team investigated ancient radiographs, Vincent Breton, director of research at the French National Research Center, conducted a social survey in the same region to give scientists a better understanding of the primary medical data.
“Right now, we need feedback from the population to understand the pandemic because we know so little about the virus,” he said, explaining that families are being asked to complete an electronic survey that covers a wide range of problems, from past symptoms. even social interaction.
Breton wants to reconcile this data with medical data and identify how the virus spread, where and when people became infected. With that information, governments can make better decisions about what to open and when, the research director explained.
As an example of why their work and coordination are so important, Breton mentioned the city of Mulhouse, the country’s first epicenter of COVID-19. It was widely believed in mid-February that the new coronavirus had spread in the region at a religious conference in one of Mulhouse’s churches, but Breton said the data collected by his team suggested that COVID-19 had already spread to the local population a few weeks before. event.
“The data provided by the population is very interesting; They show that people felt something strange was happening, but did not have the power to announce the danger, Breton explained. “This is one of the lessons we must learn during this pandemic: New ways must be devised to sound the alarm when a new disease occurs.”
Dr. Schmitt indicated that his work was just beginning. His team will now examine the x-rays from October. The more information they have now, the more prepared they will be for a possible second wave.
The head of the Paris study was Dr. Yves Cohen reviewed the records of patients in the intensive care unit late last year who had flu-like symptoms but had no pneumonia. He re-examined 14 patients, and one of them was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Dr. Cohen asked doctors around the world to repeat his practice.
“To fight an enemy, we must know his life,” he said, reiterating to M. Schmitto’s thoughts. Last week, the WHO approved their statements and asked other countries to reconsider the previous cases.
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