A study, based on the serological analysis of 9,144 people identified a positive test for antibodies against Covid-19 in French patients, collected between November 2019 and January 2020.
A presence of the virus from November 2019
The results of the study, published Saturday February 6 in the journal European Journal of Epidemiologysuggest that the virus was circulating in Europe earlier than previously thought.
Inserm researchers with the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Sorbonne University and IRD analyzed blood samples taken from volunteers of the Constance cohort, covering, since 2012, 200,000 people living in France. Among these samples, the scientists identified 353 participants with antibodies against Covid-19, and among them 13 taken between November 2019 and January 2020. The presence of these antibodies was confirmed by neutralizing antibody tests.
Symptoms linked to Covid-19 contamination
Surveys of 11 participants revealed the existence of symptoms that may be linked to Covid-19 contamination. While 6 of them reported no signs of the disease in the weeks prior to collection, 5 participants showed signs of viral respiratory disease. In addition, 8 of them have been in close contact with people showing these signs or have reported potentially risky situations.
The discovery by French researchers undermines the hypothesis of WHO experts who, dispatched to Wuhan in China, delivered their first conclusions this week on the origin of the virus, indicating that there was no “Trace of the virus before December 2019 in Wuhan or elsewhere”.
