• Mahmut Atum, Ali Altan Ertan Boz, Burçin Çakır, Oğuz Karabay, Mehmet Köroğlu, Aziz Öğütlü, and Gürsoy Alagöz.
• Department of Ophthalmology, Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital , Sakarya, Turkey.
• Ocul. Immunol. Inflamm. 2020 Jul 3; 28 (5): 745-748.

PurposeThe study objective was to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in conjunctival swabs from patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.MethodsForty patients who tested positive by real-time reverse transcription (rRT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs were enrolled. Conjunctival swabbing was used to collect the tear and conjunctival secretions of patients.ResultsConjunctival swab rRT-PCR was positive for three patients and negative for 37 patients. Ten of the patients (25%) were diagnosed with conjunctivitis during the ophthalmic examination. Of these patients, one was found positive by conjunctival swab rRT-PCR, and nine were found negative. The difference between patients who tested positive or negative using conjunctival swab rRT-PCR was without statistical significance in terms of the presence of conjunctivitis (p = .720).ConclusionThe rate of positivity from conjunctival swab rRT-PCR was 7.5% in patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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