Boy, 4, possibly first Covid patient in Italy more than a year ago

A boy, 4, could possibly be the first Covid patient in Italy – more than a year ago.

A STUDY by the State University of Milan, claims SARS-CoV-2 was identified in an oropharyngeal smear sample performed on the child suspected of having measles at the time.

The report states the child developed a “cough and rhinitis” on November 21, 2019, and nine days later he was transferred to the emergency department with respiratory symptoms and vomiting.

On December 1, he had a measles-like rash.

It was on December 5, two weeks after the onset of symptoms, when the oropharyngeal smear sample was obtained for the clinical diagnosis of suspected measles.

“We describe the earliest evidence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a patient in Italy as approximately three months before the first reported Covid-19 case in Italy,” added the report, with researchers claiming the finding is “important” as it “expands our knowledge about the timing and mapping of the SARS-CoV-2 transmission routes”.

The first official case of coronavirus in Italy was reported on February 21 in Codogno in the Lombardy region.

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