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A four-year-old boy in Italy was infected with the new coronavirus on November 21, 2019, but at that time it was mistaken for measles, according to a study by the University of Milan, published in the journal. Emerging Infectious Diseases.
This Thursday, Italian social networks report that the child will be the “number one 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. notified.
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, in compliance with the measles and rubella surveillance protocol.
The measles test result was negative and the patient was then tested for SARS-CoV-2 and tested 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.
Italy has recorded 499 deaths attributed to covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the lowest number since Nov.9, and new infections continue to decline, with 12,756 since Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported. With covid-19, since the start of the pandemic in Italy, it is now 61,739, and the number of people who have already been infected is 1,770,149.
