Tears and conjunctival scrapings for coronavirus in patients with SARS

Abstract

A prospective interventional case series study was conducted on the identification of the SARS-CoV virus in tear secretions and conjunctival cells of patients with confirmed SARS. Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Consecutive patients with probable SARS in the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, during the epidemic period from April to May 2003 were recruited. Other than the routine samples of nasopharyngeal, mouthwash and stool, tear swab and conjunctival scraping were taken randomly from one eye of all recruited patients.