SARS-CoV-2 in the ocular surface of COVID-19 patients

Hua-Tao Xie; Shi-Yun Jiang; Kang-Kang Xu; Xin Liu; Bing Xu; Lin Wang; Ming-Chang Zhang

doi:10.1186/s40662-020-00189-0

SARS-CoV-2 in the ocular surface of COVID-19 patients

Eye Vis (Lond). 2020 Apr 26:7:23. doi: 10.1186/s40662-020-00189-0. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Hua-Tao Xie^#¹, Shi-Yun Jiang^#¹, Kang-Kang Xu¹, Xin Liu¹, Bing Xu¹, Lin Wang², Ming-Chang Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ 1Department of Ophthalmology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China.
² 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022 China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread globally, while the routes of transmission of this virus are still controversial. We enrolled 33 patients, without any ocular manifestation, with their ocular surface swabs collected for virus detection. RNA was detected strong positive in samples of both eyes from two patients. Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 may exist in the normal ocular surface of COVID-19 patients, suggesting that this virus might be spread through conjunctival contact.

Keywords: COVID-19; Ocular surface; SARS-CoV-2.