ITALIAN BOY INFECTED WITH VIRUS A MONTH BEFORE CHINA’S FIRST CASE IN WUHAN

Sat 12 December 2020:

A new study conducted by research fellows from the University of Milan has found evidence of Covid-19 in a boy from the Milan area as early as the end of November 2019, months before the first identified coronavirus disease case in Italy and also earlier than the outbreak in Wuhan city, central China.

Local media said that the testing can detect the virus RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) genome, which means the result is more accurate than that from other testings.

The finding that was done in September this year analysed 39 throat swabs collected from last September to February this year, with one testing positive.

This specimen came from a four-year-old boy living in Milan, and he had had no history of traveling abroad.

He began to develop symptoms of coughing and rhinitis since November 21, 2019 and was sent to emergency on November 30 for shortness of breath and emesis. Later he was denied to have suffered from measles by his doctors.

Mario C. Raviglione, one of the paper authors for the finding, also a professor at the university, said the boy’s symptoms match with those of the Covid-19, which means he had been infected with the virus one month earlier than the case first reported in China’s Wuhan.