Chinanews, July 22.
According to reports, scientists from the Milan Cancer Research Center-the National Cancer Institute (Istituto Nazionale Tumori) wrote in a new paper published on the 19th local time that the two laboratories collected a small amount of blood samples before the outbreak of the new crown epidemic.
One of the researchers, Giovanni Apollon, said: "The results of this retest seem to indicate that the condition of asymptomatic patients we previously reported is a credible signal that the virus has spread in Italy very early
He further explained: "If this is confirmed, it will explain the surge in symptomatic cases observed in Italy in 2020.
According to reports, Italian researchers initially screened 959 lung cancer patients before the new crown pandemic
At the request of the World Health Organization, the VisMederi laboratory in Siena, Italy and the WHO affiliated institution of Erasmus University in the Netherlands retested the samples
Marion Koopmans, head of virology at Erasmus University, said these new results are "interesting
"We have used a fairly strict threshold and cannot rule out that some of the observed responses are real," she said.
The laboratory retested 29 original Italian samples, some of which were positive, some were negative, and 29 control cases in 2018
From the test, the scientists found that 3 samples were positive for the coronavirus-related antibody IgM, which is usually a sign of recent infection
Sozi, one of the Italian researchers, believes that before the new crown pandemic, the virus may not be as aggressive or contagious, which makes "despite the risk of detecting'false positive' cases, it is still necessary to use highly sensitive tests.
Koopmans said that the strict standards of Erasmus University are necessary to finally show whether the pandemic started earlier than currently thought
The Financial Times pointed out that this Italian paper has not been peer-reviewed and did not answer questions about the origin of the new crown virus, but these findings may raise questions about whether the new crown virus was in Italy or before the first confirmed case in Wuhan in December 2019.
According to the WHO, the results highlight the challenge of conducting antibody testing on samples starting in 2019
Focus on the new crown pneumonia epidemic
This article is an English version of an article which is originally in the Chinese language on echemi.com and is provided for information purposes only.
This website makes no representation or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness ownership or reliability of
the article or any translations thereof. If you have any concerns or complaints relating to the article, please send an email, providing a detailed
description of the concern or complaint, to
service@echemi.com. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days. Once verified, infringing content
will be removed immediately.
