Researchers from the Kellogg Eye Center in Michigan, USA, have confirmed the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in human post-mortem ocular tissues intended for transplant, suggesting the virus could be transferred to otherwise healthy patients via donor eye tissue.

Notably, despite one group of patients having mostly tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 with a nasopharyngeal (NP) swab, 15% of their corneal samples presented with SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA).

“There’s no evidence to suggest Covid-19 can be transmitted from a corneal transplant, but our data assures us that a screening process to determine who’s positive for the virus and who isn’t is important to make sure we do everything in case there is a potential risk of transmission,” said Dr Shahzad Mian, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Michigan Medical Group. Prof Mian’s team subsequently investigated whether transmission risk to healthy patients might be mitigated by bathing donor corneas in povidone-iodine disinfectant followed by a sterile saline flush. Although this was only tested on a small sample, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in any treated corneas.