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Italian media today report that the child will be the “number 1 patient” with covid-19 in the country, which would show that the disease was circulating long before February, when the first cases began to be reported.
According to the study, on November 30 the child was referred to the health center with respiratory problems and vomiting and a day later, spots on the skin very similar to those of measles appeared.
On December 5, 14 days after the onset of symptoms, a measles test was performed and the child was kept in the hospital, complying with the measles and rubella surveillance protocol.
The result of the measles test was negative and the patient was then tested for Sars-CoV2, having been positive.
Covid-19 can lead to Kawasaki syndrome and also cause skin manifestations common to other viral infections, such as measles.
For the researchers, this case proves that the virus had been circulating for some time in Italy, long before the sudden and abrupt impact that the country faced with the pandemic in February and also by subsequent investigations, including the detection of the virus in a sewer of Milan in mid-December 2019.
Furthermore, the study adds, this prolonged and unrecognized spread of Sars-CoV-2 in the north of the country could explain, at least in part, the devastating impact of the first wave of the disease in northern Italy.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,557,814 deaths derived from more than 68.2 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report prepared by the French agency AFP.
In Europe, the highest number of fatalities is registered in the United Kingdom (62,566 deaths, more than 1.7 million cases), followed by Italy (61,739 deaths, more than 1.7 million cases).
