In Europe, the first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the first COVID-19-related death were reported in France on January 24th and February 15th, 2020, respectively. Officially, the first case of COVID-19 infection in the Republic of Serbia was registered on March 6th. Herein, we presented the first case of retrospective detection of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the post-mortem-obtained vitreous humor (VH), which took place on February 5th, 2020. This is the first death in Europe proven to be caused by COVID-19 by means of post-mortem histopathological and molecular analyses. Based on this finding, it appears that SARS-CoV-2 has been spreading faster and started spreading much earlier than it had been considered and that COVID-19 was probably the cause of the much-reported pneumonia of unknown origin in January and February 2020.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Autopsy, vitreous humor, Europe (central), 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, Europe, Pneumonia, coronavirus 2, COVID-19 infection, death, France, Post-mortem, respiratory, Registered, COVID-19-related death, molecular analyses, vitreous, caused, reported, appear, faster, histopathological, retrospective detection, took place, 【제목키워드】 Europe,