Virus World

SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan in December 2019 and caused the pandemic respiratory disease, COVID-191,2. In 2003, the closely related SARS-CoV had been detected in domestic cats and a dog3. However, little is known about the susceptibility of domestic pet mammals to SARS-CoV-2.

Two out of fifteen dogs from households with confirmed human cases of COVID-19 in Hong Kong SAR were found to be infected using quantitative RT–PCR, serology, sequencing the viral genome, and in one dog, virus isolation. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in a 17-year-old neutered male Pomeranian from five nasal swabs collected over a 13-day period. A 2.5-year-old male German Shepherd dog had SARS CoV-2 RNA on two occasions and virus was isolated from nasal and oral swabs.

Both dogs had antibody responses detected using plaque reduction neutralization assays. Viral genetic sequences of viruses from the two dogs were identical to the virus detected in the respective human cases. The animals remained asymptomatic during quarantine. The evidence suggests that these are instances of human-to-animal transmission of SARS-CoV-2. It is unclear whether infected dogs can transmit the virus to other animals or back to humans.

Published in Nature (May 14, 2020):

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2334-5

People who recover after being infected with the novel coronavirus can still be left with substantially weakened lung capacity, with some left gasping for air when walking quickly, doctors in Hong Kong have found. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority made the findings after studying the first wave of patients who were discharged from the hospital and had fully recovered from COVID-19.

Out of 12 people in the group, two to three saw changes in their lung capacity. "They gasp if they walk a bit more quickly," Owen Tsang Tak-yin, the medical director of the authority's Infectious Disease Centre, told a press conference Thursday, according to the South China Morning Post. "Some patients might have around a drop of 20 to 30% in lung function" after full recovery, he said. Tsang added, however, that patients can do cardiovascular exercises, like swimming, the improve their lung capacity over time.

While it's too early to establish long-term effects of the disease, scans of nine patients' lungs also "found patterns similar to frosted glass in all of them, suggesting there was organ damage," Tsang said, according to the Post.