Study presence of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in the sweat of patients infected with Covid-19

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease, which started in Wuhan, Chin, has now become a public health challenge in most countries around the world. Proper preventive measures are necessary to prevent the spread of the virus to help control the pandemic. Because, SARS-CoV-2 is new, its transmission route has not been fully understood. In this study, we aimed to investigate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the sweat secretion of COVID-19 patients. Sweat specimens of 25 COVID- 19 patients were collected and tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA by Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method. After RNA extraction and cDNA amplification, all samples were examined for the presence of ORF-1ab and N genes related to COVID-19. Results annotated by Realtime PCR machines software based on Dynamic algorithm. The results of this study showed the absence of SARS-CoV-2 in the sweat samples taken from the foreheads of infected people. Therefore, it can be concluded that the sweat of patients with COVID- 19 cannot transmit SARS-CoV-2. However they can be easily contaminated with other body liquids.

Keywords: COVID- 19; Contamination; Detection; Sars-Cov-2; Sweat; Transmission.

Fig. 1

Average Cycle threshold (Ct) of patients in nasopharyngeal samples. These results indicate patient's nasopharyngeal contamination with Sars-Cov-2.

Fig. 2

Amplification curve of the Sar-Cov-2 identification by A) ORF1-ab (in Green channel), B) N gene (in Yellow channel) and C) Internal control (In Red Channel). These curves show accuracy and sensitivity of the identification of target genes. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)