Isolation of First COVID‐19 case Outside China Wins National Prize

Isolation of the first 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outside China wins 2020 MJA/MDA National Prize for Excellence in Medical Research. The study was regarded as the best research article with an award of $10 000 to the authors, published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The study isolated and sequenced the coronavirus from the first patient diagnosed with COVID-19 in Australia, and immediately shared its results with the world within 24 hours. The study team describes that the first SARS‐CoV‐2 was isolated from a 58‐year‐old man from Wuhan, China who arrived in Melbourne on 19 January 2020.

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‘Isolation of the first 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outside china wins the 2020 MJA/MDA National Prize for Excellence in Medical Research. The study states that one of the important aspects of the scientific response to the COVID‐19 outbreak was the rapid sharing of information on the virus. ’

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The man had fever, cough, and progressive dyspnoea for which he was admitted to emergency department of the Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne on 24 January 2020. The patient was tested positive for the virus through nasopharyngeal swab and sputum collection for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

The Best Paper The isolation of the SARS‐ CoV‐2 virus was obtained by inoculation of Vero/hSLAM cells with material from the nasopharyngeal swab in culture. The clinical course and laboratory features of the first COVID‐19 case in Australia were described to assess its major outcome with the world.

Further microscopic examination confirmed the presence of SARS‐CoV‐2 genomes in the viruses of the family Coronaviridae, with greater than 99.99% sequence identity. The result was immediately shared with local and overseas reference laboratories and major North American and European culture collections.

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“We applied standard techniques to isolate the virus, but we were the first group to isolate it outside China during the early stages of the epidemic. Potential reasons for our success could be the viral burden of the collected specimens and the extensive clinical experience in our reference laboratory,” says Leon Caly, Senior Medical Scientist at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and colleagues.

The study states that one of the important aspects of the scientific response to the COVID‐19 outbreak was the rapid sharing of information on the virus.

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“We continue to share live virus with other agencies, both locally and overseas, involved in the development and testing of therapeutic agents and vaccines. This is an essential function of public health reference and research laboratories, and we strongly encourage others to apply a similarly collaborative approach to streamlining efforts to diagnose, prevent, and treat COVID‐19 during this public health emergency”, says the study author.

Source-Medindia

Isolation of First COVID&#8208;19 case Outside China Wins National Prize

Isolation of First COVID‐19 case Outside China Wins National Prize