What if Covid-19 had circulated before the first officially listed case on January 24? In Bondy, in Seine Saint Denis, Professor Cohen revealed on Sunday that a patient had tested positive by PCR test on December 27. This hypothetical patient 0 would have been treated a month before the official case. So far, the first cases identified on January 24 were that of a Frenchman of Chinese origin and two Chinese tourists who stayed in Wuhan, the original focus of the epidemic.
The doctor retrospectively reviewed 24 records of patients with pneumonia. Indeed, the PCR samples had been stored and could be recovered and reanalyzed secondarily. “We had a positive case for Covid-19 on December 27 in Jean Verdier,” said Professor Cohen on Sunday on BFMTV. This patient had been hospitalized at the end of December for severe pneumonia. “He was sick for a fortnight and he infected his two children, but not his wife. He was surprised, he did not understand how he had been infected. He had not traveled.” This patient is now in good health. His wife, who was asymptomatic, may have been in contact with people of Chinese descent.
Is this patient 0? It is far too early to say, there may be other cases of this type in France. Moreover, the doctors of Jean Verdier ask that retrospective investigations be carried out in all regions on cases of pneumonia, when the samples have been kept. Several doctors in France and Italy have also observed cases of atypical pneumonia in December.
What lessons can be drawn from this? “This suggests that the virus was circulating earlier than expected on French territory, from the end of December, explains to Parisian this May 4, Doctor Bouchaud, infectious disease specialist at Avicennes hospital (93). It is not surprising, when the “we know that the WHO declared that it was circulating in China from December 8, at least. With the multiplication of trips, it is normal that the virus appeared quickly in France.”
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