ABSTRACT

Since the first report of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in late December 2019, the pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has now widely spread to more than 187 countries and regions. However, it is unclear whether there has been cryptic transmission before these early officially confirmed cases, we therefore retrospectively screened for the SARS-CoV-2 RNA in 1271 nasopharyngeal swab samples, as well as the prevalence of IgM, IgG, and total antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in 357 matched serum samples collected from hospitalized patients with influenza-like illness between 1 December 2018 and 31 March 2020 in Shanghai Ruijin Hospital. The onset date of the earliest COVID-19 case in this study was 25 January 2020. Before this time point, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 was not observed, which limited the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 has already spread among the population before the large-scale outbreak. Additionally, among 6662 patients with influenza-like illness from 1 December 2017 to 31 March 2020, the overall number of patients positive for influenza and other respiratory viruses during the COVID-19 period decreased significantly when compared with that in the same period of the last two years, reflecting that public health interventions can effectively control the spread of common respiratory viruses.

摘要

自2019年12月下旬首次报道冠状病毒疾病（COVID-19）以来，由严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）引起的大流行现已广泛传播到187个以上的国家和地区。但是，尚不清楚在这些早期官方确认的病例之前是否曾发生过隐性传播，因此，我们回顾性筛选了1271例鼻咽拭子样本中的SARS-CoV-2 RNA以及IgM，IgG和抗IgG抗体的普遍性从2018年12月1日至2020年3月31日在上海瑞金医院从住院的流感样疾病患者中采集的357份匹配血清样本中的SARS-CoV-2。该研究中最早的COVID-19病例的发病日期是2020年1月25日。在此时间点之前，未观察到SARS-CoV-2的存在，这限制了SARS-CoV-2在大规模爆发之前已经在人群中传播的可能性。此外，在2017年12月1日至2020年3月31日的6662例类流感患者中，与上一同期相比，COVID-19期间流感和其他呼吸道病毒阳性的患者总数显着下降两年来，反映出公共卫生干预措施可以有效控制常见呼吸道病毒的传播。