Evaluation of coronavirus in tears and conjunctival secretions of patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection

TLDR

The study aimed to determine whether SARS‑CoV‑2 can be detected in tears and conjunctival secretions of infected patients. A prospective case series of 30 confirmed COVID‑19 patients collected tear and conjunctival swabs every 2–3 days for RT‑PCR testing. Only the single patient with conjunctivitis tested positive, while all 58 other samples were negative, suggesting viral shedding in ocular fluids may occur only in patients with conjunctivitis.

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study aimed to assess the presence of novel coronavirus in tears and conjunctival secretions of SARS–CoV‐2‐infected patients. Methods A prospective interventional case series study was performed, and 30 confirmed novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) patients were selected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from 26 January 2020 to 9 February 2020. At an interval of 2 to 3 days, tear and conjunctival secretions were collected twice with disposable sampling swabs for reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) assay. Results Twenty‐one common‐type and nine severe‐type NCP patients were enrolled. Two samples of tear and conjunctival secretions were obtained from the only one patient with conjunctivitis yielded positive RT‐PCR results. Fifty‐eight samples from other patents were all negative. Conclusion We speculate that SARS‐CoV‐2 may be detected in the tears and conjunctival secretions in NCP patients with conjunctivitis.