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WHO said SARS-CoV-2 and covid-19 were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
The coronavirus has been circulating in Italy since September 2019, according to a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the city of Milan, which indicates that covid-19 may have spread outside of China earlier than previously thought.
The World Health Organization said SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19, the respiratory disease it causes, were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, central China, in December.
The first Italian covid-19 patient was identified on February 21 in a small town near Milan in the northern region of Lombardy.
But the results of the Italian researchers, published by the Tumori Journal, show that 11.6% of the 959 healthy volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening study between September 2019 and March 2020, had developed antibodies to the coronavirus much earlier. February.
The University of Siena carried out another test for specific antibodies against the virus for the same investigation entitled “Unexpected detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the pre-pandemic period in Italy”.
The study showed that four cases dating back to the first week of October were also positive for antibodies that neutralize the virus, implying they had been infected in September, Giovanni Apolone, co-author of the study, told Reuters.
“This is the main finding: people without symptoms not only tested positive after serological tests, but also had antibodies that could kill the virus,” Apolone said.
“It means that the new coronavirus can circulate among the population for a long time and with a low mortality rate not because it is disappearing but only to re-emerge,” he added.
Italian researchers told Reuters in March that they reported more than usual cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019, a sign that the coronavirus may have circulated sooner than previously thought.
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