The new strain of Novel Corona virus is more contagious than before, but it does not increase the severity of code 19 in people compared to the old strain.
The claim was made in a new medical study conducted in the United States.
The study found solid evidence that a new strain of the virus had spread rapidly from Europe to the United States and was now the dominant strain.
“This new strain is now a new form of the virus,” said Erica Oleiman Shipery, a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
The research, published in the journal Cell, was based on the research team’s previous work, which was recently published in Preprint Server, which, after analyzing genetic sequences, indicated that a new species was ahead of others. Is.
Now the research team not only examined further genetic sequences, but also experimented on cells in humans, animals, and laboratories, proving that the new strain of corona virus is more common and more contagious than other strains.
According to Erica Oliman, we now know how much the new virus has spread, but at first glance it doesn’t look much worse.
This new strain of the virus has affected the spike protein, the structure of the virus that affects cells, and researchers are now examining what effect this new strain may have on the vaccine in terms of controlling it.
Most of the vaccines currently being developed target spike proteins, but they are based on older strains of the virus.
The new study confirms earlier work that the new strain of the virus is more common and researchers have dubbed it the G614, and the researchers found that the strain has replaced the first version D614 in the United States and Europe. Is.
There were no effects on patient survival
The researchers said that global tracking data showed that the G614 spread more rapidly, meaning that the virus had become more contagious than before, but we did not see any evidence that this type of disease affects the severity of the disease. Has happened
“This is probably good news,” said Lawrence Young, a professor at the University of Warwick in the UK who was not part of the study. “Recent research suggests that although the G614 is more contagious, it is not more lethal.” Given the spread of the corona virus, there is hope that the virus may become less lethal.
The research team collected samples of sequences of virus genomes in patients across Europe and the United States and compared them with pre-existing sequences, which helped them map the spread of both types.
The researchers said that by March 1, 2020, the G614 was not out of Europe, but by the end of March it had reached the world.
He said that the spread of this new type continued even after the lockdown and it became the dominant type.
The researchers said that this new type of respiratory system spreads many times faster in the upper respiratory tract, ie nose, nostrils and throat and that is why it is transmitted very quickly from an infected person to a healthy person.
But he found in tests on 1,000 patients being treated in the UK that those infected with the new strain were no worse off than those infected with the original virus.
“We are able to test whether this new strain of the virus is more contagious than the old one,” said David Monte Fiore, director of the Duke University AIDS Vaccine Research and Development Laboratory. 3 to 9 times more contagious than the old version.
Laboratory tests for the virus also confirmed the results of genetic mapping.
The researchers said that the results indicate that the new strain of the virus is more likely to spread than the original strain, which reinforces the idea of using face masks and adopting social distance. ۔
There are other types of viruses with G614, but their effects are not yet clear.
The researchers said more research was needed to further solidify the findings and find out what the changes meant for the epidemic and patients