Emerging Infectious Diseases (Jan 2021)

Postmortem Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasopharyngeal Mucosa

  • Fabian Heinrich,
  • Kira Meißner,
  • Felicia Langenwalder,
  • Klaus Püschel,
  • Dominik Nörz,
  • Armin Hoffmann,
  • Marc Lütgehetmann,
  • Martin Aepfelbacher,
  • Eric Bibiza-Freiwald,
  • Susanne Pfefferle,
  • Axel Heinemann

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2701.203112
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 1
pp. 329 – 331

Abstract

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Analyses of infection chains have demonstrated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is highly transmissive. However, data on postmortem stability and infectivity are lacking. Our finding of nasopharyngeal viral RNA stability in 79 corpses showed no time-dependent decrease. Maintained infectivity is supported by virus isolation up to 35 hours postmortem.

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