BREAKING NEWS: New Report In Lancet Confirms That Coronavirus Can Spread Through Eyes
Source: Thailand Medical News Feb 09, 2020 4 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 19 hours, 41 minutes ago
New research is emerging that the new
coronavirus, 2019-nCov is also able to be transmitted through the eyes.
The repost published in the Lancet, a prestigious and per-reviewed medical journal, warned that there is also ample evidence to prove that the
coronavirus is able to spread through the eyes and that it was also a route that caused many new infections.
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The report cited as an example, a Chinese pneumonia expert Dr Guangfa Wang who was infected by the 2019-nCoV
coronavirus while visiting Wuhan last month.
Despite wearing a protective N95 mask, he failed to wear any protective eyewear and later complained of “redness of the eyes” and was later diagnosed with the
coronavirus as other symptoms also developed.
The report states that Infectious droplets and body fluids can easily contaminate the human conjunctival epithelium of the eye.
Also, respiratory viruses such as the SARS and the new 2019-nCoV
coronaviruses are capable of inducing ocular complications in infected patients, which then leads to respiratory infection.
It was already in the past seen that the SARS virus or Severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is predominantly transmitted through direct or indirect contact with mucous membranes in the eyes, mouth, or nose.
As the new 2019-nCoV
coronavirus is also similar in genomic structure and also in many characteristics to the SARs virus, it is safe to assumed that just like the SARS
coronavirus, it too is able to infect individuals via the eyes.
All the main researchers involved in this study were Chinese doctors from Wuhan hospitals including Dr C Huang, Dr Y Wang, Dr X Li, L Ren, Dr J Zhao, Dr Y Hu,and Dr L Zhang
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The researchers also warn that many doctors including ophthalmologists and also healthcare professionals are often ignoring protective measure for their eyes when examining patients and are only wearing mask which is not sufficient.
Many hospital transmissions by healthcare professionals in Wuhan could have been contracted through this way.
The researchers also advised that for even for ordinary individuals in crowed and exposed areas, they should be wearing some king of protective goggles to protect their eyes from the
coronavirus as wearing just a mask is not sufficient.
For more updates about the
coro
navirus epidemic or the
Thailand Coronavirus scenario, keep on checking at:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
Reference: 2019-nCoV transmission through the ocular surface must not be ignored, lancet, Cheng-wei Lu, Xiu-fen Liu, Zhi-fang Jia, et al, Published Feb 06
th 2010,
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30313-5 
