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. 2020 Jun;68(6):1015-1017.
doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1287_20.

Presence of viral RNA of SARS-CoV-2 in conjunctival swab specimens of COVID-19 patients

Kiran Kumar  1 , Akshata A Prakash  1 , Suresh Babu Gangasagara  1 , Sujatha B L Rathod  1 , K Ravi  2 , Ambica Rangaiah  3 , Sathyanarayan Muthur Shankar  3 , Shantala Gowdara Basawarajappa  3 , Shashi Bhushan  4 , T G Neeraja  1 , Srinivas Khandenahalli  1 , M Swetha  1 , Priyam Gupta  1 , U C Sampritha  1 , Guru N S Prasad  1 , Chakravarthy Raghunathan Jayanthi  5
Affiliations

Presence of viral RNA of SARS-CoV-2 in conjunctival swab specimens of COVID-19 patients

Kiran Kumar et al. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: To detect the presence of viral RNA of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in conjunctival swab specimens of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients.

Methods: Forty-five COVID-19 patients positive for real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swab with or without ocular manifestations were included in the study. The conjunctival swab of each patient was collected by an ophthalmologist posted for COVID duty.

Results: Out of 45 patients, 35 (77.77%) were males and the rest were females. The mean age was 31.26 ± 12.81 years. None of the patients had any ocular manifestations. One (2.23%) out of 45 patients was positive for RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 in the conjunctival swab.

Conclusion: This study shows that SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in conjunctival swabs of confirmed cases of COVID-19 patients. Though the positivity rate of detecting SARS-CoV-2 in conjunctival swabs is very less, care should be exercised during the ocular examination of patients of COVID-19.

Keywords: Conjunctival swab; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus disease-19; nasopharyngeal swab.

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