Study during one of the peaks of the pandemic analyzed samples from 83 patients admitted to the wards and Intensive Care Unit of the HC
Despite the low probability, it is possible to contract Covid-19 through eye fluids. The alert comes from a study carried out by a group of researchers from the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM), Institute of Biology (IB) and Center for Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG) at Unicamp, recently published in the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine.
“One of our concerns was knowing what risks healthcare professionals are exposed to when caring for infected people, especially ophthalmologists”, explains Mônica Alves, collaborating professor at the Department of Ophthalmology at FCM and coordinator of the study. The main objective of the research was to investigate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the tears and on the ocular surface of patients with Covid-19.
Funded by Faepex, the research involved more than a dozen researchers and resident doctors from the Department of Ophthalmology and Otorhinolaryngology at FCM, the Discipline of Infectious Diseases, the Clinical Pathology Laboratory of the Hospital de Clínicas and the Laboratóriver of V Studiesíemerging rus from the Institute of Biology (IB), which, during one of the peaks of the pandemic, analyzed samples from 83 patients admitted to the wards and Intensive Care Unit of the HC.
"Once identified, in the RT-PCR exam, SARS-CoV-2 in theregrima and on the surfaceocular disease, we observed the relationship between the positivity of the virus in tears and in the nasopharyngeal examination and some clinical manifestations of the patients. We were able to demonstrate that, despite the low positivity for the virus in the samples (8,43%), there is the possibility of contamination for Covid-19, albeit minimal”, says the specialist.
Also according to the professor, the study carried out at Unicamp corroborates the findings of the few existing studies on the transmission of SARS-Cov-2 through ocular fluids, which also point to the low positivity for this virus in the samples analyzed.
For Mônica, this low positivity does not eliminate the care that professionals must take when dealing with infected patients, nor does it diminish the relevance of the object investigated. In this sense, she recalls the initial moments of the pandemic. "Uone of the first sa professionalsPlease alert about the emergence of one new infection was o Ophthalmologist Chinese Li Wenliang, who unfortunately passed away from Covid-19.
Original article published on the Unicamp Faculty of Medical Sciences website.
