Studies claim COVID-19 originated in Italy, not China

Photo credit Andreas Solaro/AFP

In Milan Italy, the evidence that the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 circulated in Italy months prior to its very first formal detection continued to ascend after research at the University of Milan revealed that a skin biopsy on a 25-year-old woman showed the presence of the virus in Italy earlier in November 2019.

The said evidence is added to new research from the same University wherein in December, they discovered coronavirus antibodies in a four-year-old boy who fell ill in the late November of 2019.

Italy’s National Cancer Institute also added in its research in November 2020 that four Italian cancer test subjects had coronavirus antibodies earlier in October 2019 which only means that they would have been infected in late September that is already three months before the official announcement of the first Covid-19 case in China and in the late February 2020, the first case in Italy was recorded.

Given both cases, doctors and researchers told Xinhua that the evidence of the early detection of the coronavirus in Italy did not create doubt on the real origins of the virus, however, it really helps in creating a vision of how the virus spread worldwide.

The latest data was published in the British Journal of Dermatology on January 7, which is based on the analysis of the skin biopsies performed between the month of September and November 2019.

In a statement from the University of Milan, it is said that skin pathologies can be a symptom of the virus infection in 5 to 10 percent of cases so the possibility that the skin issue the 25-year-old woman sought for treatment was an actual symptom of the coronavirus which is similar to the case that of the four-year-old boy from Milan that developed flu-like symptoms and even skin rash. However, the initial diagnosis for the boy was measles and is curable.

Since the emergence of the pandemic, Italy has recorded more than 2.3 million Covid-19 cases and nearly 80,000 deaths, which makes it one of the hard-hit countries worldwide.

Reference:

https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/world/covid-started-in-italy-not-china-study/ar-BB1cLAXQ?fbclid=IwAR304A4T-3HDIAeOlz_AyUifs3HQTsiM-O-ecG5TjRQFdLvRAG8s2HRdEGc