beijingwalker
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2011
- Messages
- 65,195
- Reaction score
- -55
- Country
- Location
Coronavirus has been circulating in Italy since September 2019
By Shivali Best
07:53, 16 NOV 2020
Coronavirus has been circulating in Italy since September 2019, study claims (Image: REUTERS)
With coronavirus cases around the world now at over 54 million, scientists have been working to understand exactly how and when the deadly bug started spreading.
Now, researchers claim that coronavirus may have been circulating in Italy as early as September 2019.
A team from the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan say the findings indicate that COVID-19 might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.
The World Health Organization has said the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease it causes, were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, in central China, in December.
Italy's first COVID-19 patient was detected on Feb. 21 in a little town near Milan, in the northern region of Lombardy.
But the Italian researchers' findings, published by the INT's scientific magazine Tumori Journal, show that 11,6% of 959 healthy volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020, had developed coronavirus antibodies well before February.
A further specific SARS-CoV-2 antibodies test was carried out by the University of Siena for the same research titled "Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the pre-pandemic period in Italy".
It showed that four cases dated back to the first week of October were also positive for antibodies neutralizing the virus, meaning they had got infected in September, Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, told Reuters.
"This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but had also antibodies able to kill the virus," Apolone said.
"It means that the new coronavirus can circulate among the population for long and with a low rate of lethality not because it is disappearing but only to surge again," he added.
Italian researchers told Reuters in March that they reported a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 in a sign that the new coronavirus might have circulated earlier than previously thought.
www.mirror.co.uk
COVID-19 may have been in Italy as early as September 2019: study
By Jesse O’Neill
November 15, 2020 | 5:39pm
A new study has found that the coronavirus may have spread outside of China far earlier than previously thought.
A study by the National Cancer Institute said the deadly virus appears to have been circulating in Milan last September — five months before Italy’s first COVID-19 patient was detected, and three months before the outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China.
Italian researchers now report that 12 percent of 959 healthy volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020 developed coronavirus antibodies long before Feb. 21, when the country’s first case was identified.
Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, says four cases dated back to early October 2019, which meant the healthy volunteers would have been infected in September.
“This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but had also antibodies able to kill the virus,” Apolone said.
“It means that the new coronavirus can circulate among the population for long and with a low rate of lethality not because it is disappearing but only to surge again,” he added.
In March, Italian researchers reported a higher-than-average number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu outside Milan in the last quarter of 2019 — an early sign that the virus could have been spreading well before the outbreak.
nypost.com
By Shivali Best
07:53, 16 NOV 2020
Coronavirus has been circulating in Italy since September 2019, study claims (Image: REUTERS)
With coronavirus cases around the world now at over 54 million, scientists have been working to understand exactly how and when the deadly bug started spreading.
Now, researchers claim that coronavirus may have been circulating in Italy as early as September 2019.
A team from the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan say the findings indicate that COVID-19 might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.
The World Health Organization has said the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease it causes, were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, in central China, in December.
Italy's first COVID-19 patient was detected on Feb. 21 in a little town near Milan, in the northern region of Lombardy.
But the Italian researchers' findings, published by the INT's scientific magazine Tumori Journal, show that 11,6% of 959 healthy volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020, had developed coronavirus antibodies well before February.
A further specific SARS-CoV-2 antibodies test was carried out by the University of Siena for the same research titled "Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the pre-pandemic period in Italy".
It showed that four cases dated back to the first week of October were also positive for antibodies neutralizing the virus, meaning they had got infected in September, Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, told Reuters.
"This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but had also antibodies able to kill the virus," Apolone said.
"It means that the new coronavirus can circulate among the population for long and with a low rate of lethality not because it is disappearing but only to surge again," he added.
Italian researchers told Reuters in March that they reported a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 in a sign that the new coronavirus might have circulated earlier than previously thought.
Coronavirus has been circulating in Italy since September 2019, study claims
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute claim that coronavirus may have been circulating in Italy as early as September 2019
www.mirror.co.uk
By Jesse O’Neill
November 15, 2020 | 5:39pm
A new study has found that the coronavirus may have spread outside of China far earlier than previously thought.
A study by the National Cancer Institute said the deadly virus appears to have been circulating in Milan last September — five months before Italy’s first COVID-19 patient was detected, and three months before the outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China.
Italian researchers now report that 12 percent of 959 healthy volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020 developed coronavirus antibodies long before Feb. 21, when the country’s first case was identified.
Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, says four cases dated back to early October 2019, which meant the healthy volunteers would have been infected in September.
“This is the main finding: people with no symptoms not only were positive after the serological tests but had also antibodies able to kill the virus,” Apolone said.
“It means that the new coronavirus can circulate among the population for long and with a low rate of lethality not because it is disappearing but only to surge again,” he added.
In March, Italian researchers reported a higher-than-average number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu outside Milan in the last quarter of 2019 — an early sign that the virus could have been spreading well before the outbreak.
COVID-19 may have been in Italy as early as September 2019: study
A new study has found that the coronavirus may have spread outside of China far earlier than previously thought. A study by the National Cancer Institute said the deadly virus appears to have been …
nypost.com
Last edited:
