Hunt for mystery Italian woman feared to be Covid ‘patient zero’ as sample showed antibodies weeks before Wuhan outbreak
A HUNT for the Coronavirus ‘patient zero’ has led WHO officials to a mystery Italian woman whose skin sample showed she had the virus weeks before the outbreak in Wuhan.
The 25-year-old had visited a hospital in Milan with a sore throat and skin lesions back in November 2019- a month before the first case of Covid-19 was reported in China.
A research paper that was published in January found that a small skin sample from the woman contained yielded traces of the virus when it was tested more than six months later, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Members of a World Health Organization-led team claim that the 25-year-old’s case indicates the virus was circulating before the first outbreak in Wuhan’s market in December 2019 and suggest further study would help them determine just how long.
The problem is the woman’s identity remains unknown.
Milan’s Policlinico hospital and the University of Milan, which oversaw her case, said they don’t have her details while Raffaele Gianotti, the dermatologist who treated her, died in March, days before the team asked for more research into his patient.
The research team has recommended looking in other countries for possible Covid-19 cases that predate the first confirmed case in Wuhan.
Experts believe that examining earlier suspected cases of Covid-19 would help them establish a timeline of the spread of the virus.
In order to do this, they have asked blood banks in countries including Italy to test samples from late 2019 for antibodies to the virus.
A number of studies have suggested that that people were infected before the first Covid-19 cases were reported in their areas.
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And while scientists are trying to determine the origin of the virus, a shocking study revealed last month that China had deleted Covid data in a bid to cover up ”Patient Zero.”
The study suggests that information that could have provided vital clues has been deleted while claims the virus was circulating before it was first detected at wet markets.
It confirms the claims of Sir Richard Dearlove, a former head of MI6 who said that any evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic was caused by a lab leak has probably been destroyed by China.
The lab leak theory suggests the virus could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The head of the World Health Organisation Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 56, said the Wuhan lab leak theory can’t be ruled out and urged more “transparency” from China in the ongoing investigation.
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China insists that Covid originated in America and that “white supremacists” are bullying anti-lab leak scientists while it has even called for the outbreak to be probed as a bioweapon.
Meanwhile, Dr Peter Daszak who was part of the WHO investigation has been removed from the UN-backed Lancet probe as he has repeatedly attempted to dismiss allegations the virus could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
A report has also revealed that some of the world’s deadliest viruses were shipped to Wuhan’s ”leak lab” including Ebola and Nipah viruses.