SARS-CoV-2 was already spreading in France in late December 2019

A Deslandes; V Berti; Y Tandjaoui-Lambotte; Chakib Alloui; E Carbonnelle; J R Zahar; S Brichler; Yves Cohen

doi:10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106006

SARS-CoV-2 was already spreading in France in late December 2019

Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Jun;55(6):106006. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106006. Epub 2020 May 3.

Authors

A Deslandes¹, V Berti¹, Y Tandjaoui-Lambotte², Chakib Alloui¹, E Carbonnelle³, J R Zahar⁴, S Brichler¹, Yves Cohen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France, and Service de Microbiologie Clinique et Unité de Contrôle et de Prévention du Risque Infectieux, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine Saint-Denis, AP-HP, Bobigny, France.
² Réanimation polyvalente, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine Saint-Denis, AP-HP, Bobigny, France; INSERM U1272 Hypoxie et Poumon, Bobigny, France.
³ Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France, and Service de Microbiologie Clinique et Unité de Contrôle et de Prévention du Risque Infectieux, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine Saint-Denis, AP-HP, Bobigny, France; IAME, UMR 1137, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France.
⁴ Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France, and Service de Microbiologie Clinique et Unité de Contrôle et de Prévention du Risque Infectieux, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine Saint-Denis, AP-HP, Bobigny, France; IAME, UMR 1137, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France. Electronic address: jrzahar@gmail.com.
⁵ Réanimation polyvalente, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Seine Saint-Denis, AP-HP, Bobigny, France; INSERM, U942, F-75010, Paris, France.

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic is believed to have started in late January 2020 in France. Here we report a case of a patient hospitalised in December 2019 in an intensive care unit in a hospital in the north of Paris for haemoptysis with no aetiological diagnosis. RT-PCR was performed retrospectively on the stored respiratory sample and confirmed the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Based on this result, it appears that the COVID-19 epidemic started much earlier in France.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus disease 2019; France; Intensive care unit; SARS-CoV-2.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Betacoronavirus / isolation & purification*
COVID-19
Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology*
Female
France / epidemiology
Humans
Intensive Care Units
Male
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology*
Retrospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2