Unlocking the lockdown of science and demystifying COVID-19: how autopsies contribute to our understanding of a deadly p
- PDF / 591,951 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 0 Downloads / 149 Views
EDITORIAL
Unlocking the lockdown of science and demystifying COVID-19: how autopsies contribute to our understanding of a deadly pandemic Alexandar Tzankov 1
&
Danny Jonigk 2
Received: 16 June 2020 / Revised: 16 June 2020 / Accepted: 28 June 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
A rapidly evolving sweeping pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) leading to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has dominated the first half of 2020 and continues to do so. Cases of COVID-19 were first described in late 2019, when a series of previously unidentified pneumonia-related deaths emerged in Hubei province, China [1]. COVID-19, subsequently spread to almost all countries with a current count of > 11.5 million cases and > 535,000 confirmed deaths worldwide (https://www. worldometers.info/coronavirus/). Although virus’ origin, cellular entry and epidemiology [2–4] have rapidly been clarified, in situ observations of the actual viral interactions within human organs and tissues in patients suffering from COVID-19 have for a long time been addressed at the level of case reports or small series of ≤ 4 cases, as reviewed by Calabrese et al. [5] in the current issue of Virchows Archiv. Indeed, by the end of April 2020 when 150,000 patients had already died of COVID-19, only 16 autopsy cases had been reported in the peerreviewed literature, with nine publications presenting limited autopsies, assessment of postmortem core-needle or incisional collections of tissue. In the absence of reliable data regarding the degree of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in dead individuals, various authorities discouraged the conduction of autopsies. This, combined with the ill-adjusted attitudes of pathologists, clinicians and societies towards autopsies, locked down scientific activities to elucidate the actual underlying mechanisms of COVID-19 [6]. This seems incomprehensible, given the fundamental and timeproven role of autopsies in re-emerging, emerging or unknown
* Alexandar Tzankov [email protected] 1
Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Schoenbeinstrasse 40, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland
2
Institute of Pathology, German Center for Lung Research, Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
diseases [e.g., 7]. Only after 170,000 reported COVID-19 deaths and 4 months of pandemic, the first autopsy series of > 10 patients (n = 21) was put forward published [8], and only after another 280,000 deaths and one more month, finally a series of > 50 patients (n = 80) was released [9]. The paper by Heinrich et al. in this volume [10] very fittingly illustrates the overcoming of the above mentioned hindrance of autopsies from the German perspective, reporting the systematic postmortem examination, including CT scan, autopsy, histology, and virology assessments, of the first (German) patient to die from COVID-19. As suggested by the fact that the deceased had to be transported to H
Data Loading...
