Assessment of Coronavirus in the Conjunctival Tears in Pediatric Patients with Asymptomatic COVID-19 Infection in Sohag Government, Egypt

Hany Mahmoud,Ahmed Radwan,Amr El Rashidy,Amal H Ali,Hesham M Hefny,Amr Mounir

doi:10.2174/1874364102115010083

Abstract

Objective: The present study aims to evaluate coronavirus shedding in the tears of asymptomatic pediatric COVID-19 positive patients. Methods: A prospective interventional study that included a total of 145 pediatric asymptomatic COVID-19 patients hospitalized from 17th May 2020 to 16th July 2020 in Sohag Tropical Hospital. On admission, all of them were COVID-19 positive detected through nasopharyngeal swab. They were in intimate contact with positive symptomatic COVID-19 patients before testing and admission. Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was done for tears samples at an interval of 5 days after admission and twice before discharge. Results: Of the 145 asymptomatic pediatric COVID-19 positive patients, no one showed ocular or systemic manifestations. They were silent carriers. Ten were positive for tears sample on admission. They became negative for nasopharyngeal and tear samples before discharge. Conclusion: Pediatric positive COVID-19 patients can shed coronavirus through their tears. Even among asymptomatic patients, transmission through tears is possible.

Highlights

In December 2019, the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan (China) and spread all over the world, causing a major health problem
Some patients have no symptoms, so they represent a major threat because they are silent carriers to the pathogen [4, 5]
The present paper aims to evaluate its shedding in ocular tears and secretion and clarify the potential infectivity of asymptomatic pediatric patients

Summary

Introduction

In December 2019, the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan (China) and spread all over the world, causing a major health problem. World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it is a pandemic [1, 2]. The pathogen is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Co V-2). It causes respiratory, gastrointestinal, and ocular [3] symptoms as well as fever. Some patients have no symptoms, so they represent a major threat because they are silent carriers to the pathogen [4, 5]. There are many routes for virus transmission, such as drop-

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Conclusion