<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
THURSDAY, March 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States has been recorded between two people with prolonged, unprotected exposure while the patient was symptomatic, according to a study published online March 13 in The Lancet<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Isaac Ghinai, M.B.B.S., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues investigated the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the state of Illinois. Contacts with exposure to a patient with confirmed COVID-19 were actively monitored for symptoms for 14 days after their last exposure. Those who developed fever, cough, or shortness of breath became persons under investigation and underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing. In addition, testing was conducted on a convenience sample of 32 asymptomatic health care personnel contacts.<\/p>\n
The researchers identified patient 1, a woman in her 60s, who returned from China in mid-January 2020 and was hospitalized with pneumonia one week later and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Her husband (patient 2) had frequent close contact with her although he did not travel. Eight days later, he was admitted and tested positive for SARS-CoV2. Three hundred seventy-two contacts of both cases were identified; 347 underwent active symptom monitoring. Of these, 43 became persons under investigation; they all tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, as did all 32 asymptomatic health care personnel.<\/p>\n
“Our ongoing investigation has only detected transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a single household contact with frequent, prolonged interactions with the index patient,” the authors write.<\/p>\n