On February 22, Guangzhou City held the Guangzhou Science and Technology War "epidemic" news, briefing on the measures and effectiveness of the research and development work on the prevention and control of New Coronavirus in Guangzhou. The briefing also included the news that Nanshan Zhong's team isolated the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from urine, which attracted widespread attention from the community.
Virus causing cytopathic lesions (left: cell control right: COVID-19-28#)
The sample is a urine specimen provided by the First Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. The research team applied Vero E6 cells and successfully isolated the virulent strain of the new coronavirus. The whole genome sequencing and virological identification of the virus have been completed.
Indirect immunofluorescence identification (left: COVID-19-28# right: cell control)
The above study confirmed the presence of live virus in the patient's urine. The isolation of the virus in the patient's urine provides important information for the development of prevention and control strategies for neocrown pneumonia disease in China, which is of great significance for public health safety prevention and control.
What will that mean when new coronavirus is isolated in urine?
First, let's look at the "Novel coronavirus pneumonia diagnosis and treatment guidelines (pilot sixth edition)" in the laboratory tests listed in the "in the nasopharyngeal swab, sputum and other lower respiratory secretions, blood, stool and other specimens can be detected in the novel coronavirus nucleic acid." So once this news comes out, we dare to imagine that if the next national release of the "Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Treatment Guidelines (Trial Version 7)", it is likely that this place will be added to urine and other specimens (of course, this is just a little personal speculation, does not represent any official or other party opinion).
More importantly, related to our industry we test workers, if the new coronavirus pneumonia patient urine specimen testing, be more careful, it is understood that almost all the urine routine testing instruments on the market, whether fully automatic, semi-automatic instruments, or urine dry chemistry, urine sediment analyzers need to open the lid test, once involved in the open lid, there will be the risk of aerosol generation, "New Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnostic and Treatment Guidelines (Trial Version 6)" has clarified the aerosol transmission pathway, although the urine only detected the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid, whether it will cause the spread of disease, is not known, but prevention is better than cure, the author still recommends that the test personnel conducting urine testing, it is best to follow the three levels of biosafety protection requirements for personal protection, conditional Laboratory, open the lid work is best carried out in the biosafety cabinet, not equipped with biosafety cabinets in the laboratory recommended to wear protective face screen, open the lid operation, the action should be gentle, slow, as far as possible when operating from the specimen is not too close. Also, after the operation, gloves should be changed immediately after touching the patient's urine, and the urinary catheter should be sealed and autoclaved in a timely manner after sample testing is completed.
In addition, the isolation of neo-coronavirus from the urine of patients with neo-coronavirus pneumonia has important warning and guiding significance for public health safety prevention and control. Previously, we knew that the patient's stool carried the virus, and now the patient's urine was again detected with viral nucleic acid, suggesting to us that the body fluids, secretions, and excretions of patients with neo-coronary pneumonia may contain viral nucleic acid, and may also be found in specimens such as cerebrospinal fluid and pleural effusion of patients in the future.
Therefore, we should treat any specimens of body fluids from patients with new coronary pneumonia in accordance with infectious specimens and take appropriate protective measures, such as disinfection of public restrooms should be thorough, avoiding the production of aerosols when flushing the toilet after using public restrooms, or wearing a mask when necessary, and hand washing in a six-step procedure immediately after using the bathroom for hand hygiene disinfection. It is still necessary to disinfect the soles of shoes; medical staff working in infectious disease rooms should be disinfected promptly if they come into contact with patients' urine.
In conclusion, the detection of neocoronavirus disease nucleic acid in urine is of great significance to our daily protection, and it also strengthens our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and provides new directions and ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease and epidemiological research.
【References
1. Heavyweight! Response from Zhong Nanshan's team: Isolation of new coronavirus from urine. Guangzhou Daily.
2, "Novel coronavirus pneumonia diagnosis and treatment guidelines (trial sixth edition)
3, CCTV News
