Coronavirus replicates in throat making it easy to transmit, German scientists say

Pathogen that causes Covid-19 does not have to travel to the lungs to replicate, researchers say

High viral load in the throat at the onset of symptoms suggests people with Covid-19 are infectious very early on, they say

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The new coronavirus appears to replicate rapidly in the throat, a German study has found. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:00pm, 9 Apr 2020Updated: 12:19am, 10 Apr 2020

Scientists in Germany have determined that the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can rapidly replicate within people’s throats, making it far easier than Sars virus for it to be transmitted from one person to the next.

The study, which was published in Nature on April 1, was conducted by teams from Berlin, Munich and Cambridge, and based on the clinical treatment of a group of nine Covid-19 patients.

The findings suggest that the new coronavirus can easily spread through droplets, indicating that this transmission method should be a focus of containment measures, according to the team led by Christian Drosten from Charité University Hospital in Berlin and Clemens Wendtner from the Schwabing Clinic in Munich.

The assessment also came as the World Health Organisation reversed course last week, acknowledging that the use of face masks by the general public can help stop human-to-human transmission.

The nine patients all had mild symptoms and were young to middle-aged professionals and treated in a hospital in Munich.

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