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Comment
. 2021 May;82(5):e3-e5.
doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2021.02.016. Epub 2021 Feb 17.

Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in nasopharyngeal swabs after death

Manuel Scimeca  1 , Silvestro Mauriello  2 , Francesca Servadei  3 , Bartolo Caggiano  2 , Marco Ciotti  4 , Lucia Anemona  3 , Manuela Montanaro  3 , Erica Giacobbi  3 , Michele Treglia  2 , Sergio Bernardini  4 , Luigi Tonino Marsella  2 , Orazio Schillaci  5 , Alessandro Mauriello  6
Affiliations
Comment

Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in nasopharyngeal swabs after death

Manuel Scimeca et al. J Infect. 2021 May.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest All authors have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hypothesis about the SARS-CoV-2 persistence in human body after death. A) The increase in chest pressure due to the formation of intestinal gas with consequent compression on the diaphragm can push out the SARS-CoV-2 particles from lower to upper airways. B) The lysis of SARS-CoV-2 infected cells that occur after death can release a large amount of viral particles in the upper airways. C) In the first hours after death the SARS-CoV-2 can infect alive cells thus increasing the viral load. Created in Biorender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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