First Cases of SARS-CoV-2 in Iran, 2020: Case Series Report

Jila YAVARIAN; Nazanin-Zahra  SHAFIEI-JANDAGHI; Kaveh SADEGHI; Somayeh  SHATIZADEH MALEKSHAHI; Vahid SALIMI; Ahmad NEJATI; Fatemeh AJAMINEJAD; Nastaran GHAVVAMI; Fatemeh SAADATMAND; Saeedeh MAHFOUZI; Ghazal FATEMINASAB; Najmeh PARHIZGARI; Kobra  RAZAVI; Soad GHABESHI; Mostafa SABERIAN; Elham ZANJANI; Fatemeh  NAMAZI; Tayebeh SHAHBAZI; Farshid REZAIE; Hossein ERFANI; Mohammad Mehdi GOUYA; Mohammad  NASR DADRAS; Talat MOKHTARI AZAD

doi:10.18502/ijph.v49i8.3903

Jila YAVARIAN
Nazanin-Zahra SHAFIEI-JANDAGHI
Kaveh SADEGHI
Somayeh SHATIZADEH MALEKSHAHI
Vahid SALIMI
Ahmad NEJATI
Fatemeh AJAMINEJAD
Nastaran GHAVVAMI
Fatemeh SAADATMAND
Saeedeh MAHFOUZI
Ghazal FATEMINASAB
Najmeh PARHIZGARI
Kobra RAZAVI
Soad GHABESHI
Mostafa SABERIAN
Elham ZANJANI
Fatemeh NAMAZI
Tayebeh SHAHBAZI
Farshid REZAIE
Hossein ERFANI
Mohammad Mehdi GOUYA
Mohammad NASR DADRAS
Talat MOKHTARI AZAD

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v49i8.3903

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Iran; Emerging disease; Virus; COVID-19

Abstract

In Jan 2020, the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China spread increasingly to other countries worldwide which WHO declared it as a public health emergency of international concern. Iran was included in the affected countries. Throat swab specimens were collected and tested by using real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) kit targeting the E region for screening and RNA dependent RNA polymerase for confirmation. Conventional RT-PCR was conducted for the N region and the PCR products were sequenced by Sanger sequencing. The first seven cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections were identified in Qom, Iran. This report describes the clinical and epidemiological features of the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 confirmed in Iran. Future research should focus on finding the routes of transmission for this virus, including the possibility of transmission from foreign tourists to identify the possible origin of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Iran.