Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
8. Ulusal otoloji-nörootoloji kongresi, İstanbul, Türkiye, 26 - 27 Haziran 2021, ss.27-28, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
Objective: In December 2019, a new and contagious, atypical (viral)
pneumonia case was reported in Wuhan, China. On January 7, 2020,
the agent was identified as a new coronavirus (2019- nCoV) that has
not been detected in humans before. Later, the name of the 2019-
nCoV disease was accepted as COVID-19, the virus was named as
SARS-CoV-2 due to its close resemblance to SARS CoV. As a result of
the presence of virus in the ear fluids (Cerumen), the risk of virus
transmission to both the practicing personnel and other patients will
increase rapidly. Therefore, the presence of coronavirus in the cerumen
is of great importance. The aim of our study is to investigate the
presence of coronavirus in the ear fluids/cerumen of patients diagnosed
with Covid-19.
Materials and Methods: A total of 50 patients diagnosed with
Covid-19, including 30 men and 20 women, were included in the
study.
Results: SARS-CoV-2 RNA was positive in only one (2%) of the external
ear canal samples of 50 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 (E gene Ct:
30.28, RdRP gene Ct: 32.82, N gene Ct: 31.38). In the variant screening,
69-70 deletion and ORF 1a deletion were detected in the sample,
while 242-244 deletion and E484K mutation were not observed. Accordingly,
the patient sample was evaluated as SARS-CoV-2 UK variant
(B.1.1.7-GR/501Y.V1). The UK variant was detected in 9 of 50 patients
with a positive PCR test.
Conclusion: Audiological equipment and hearing aids are in constant
contact with cerumen, and people who come into contact with them
are also at risk for infections that can be transmitted from cerumen.
The risk of covid19 virus in cerumen will play a role in protecting audiologists and other health professionals from contamination and
taking precautions. Our study also reveals the risk of transmission in
different variants by studying the issue of virus variants, which are
not included in other studies. The presence of British variant virus
in-ear swabs in only one female subject out of 50 suggests that it is
important to routinely screen for the risk of transmission in different
body fluids and cerumen as changes in variants are observed. In addition,
since only one female subject was positive in our series, it was
thought that it would be important to investigate the risk of Covid-19
transmission in cerumen in order to reveal the risk based on gender
in a larger population.