Chinanews, July 22. According to the British Financial Times, the latest research by Italian research institutions shows that the new crown virus may have appeared in Italy in October 2019, but there is no conclusion yet.
Image source: Screenshot from the Financial Times report
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. Re-testing was carried out.
The results showed that there are antibodies that are usually observed after a new coronavirus infection.
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. The new coronavirus or earlier versions have been quietly spreading."
According to reports, Italian researchers initially screened 959 lung cancer patients before the new crown pandemic.
In 2020, they tested these samples again, looking for antibodies related to the coronavirus, and said they had found traces of infection.
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."
But at the same time, she also warned that although there is some evidence of antibodies, according to the school's strict standards, none of the samples provided conclusive evidence of previous infections with the new crown.
"We have used a fairly strict threshold and cannot rule out that some of the observed responses are real," she said. "However, in order to confirm early circulation, we recommend conducting virological confirmation studies on patients with unexplained diseases."
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.
Among them, the earliest sample was collected on October 10, 2019.
The sample taken on February 5, 2020 also showed that the neutralizing antibody was positive.
However, none of the samples contained the level of antibodies that could be considered as evidence of infection with the new coronavirus.
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.
"This does not mean that it is impossible."
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. Debates spread elsewhere.
According to the WHO, the results highlight the challenge of conducting antibody testing on samples starting in 2019.
"Thanks" to the scientists who tried to advance the issue of the origin of the new crown.