The so-called British corona variant, B.1.1.7, is more contagious but no more deadly than the original virus that first emerged in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. Two different studies appearing in ‘The Lancet Infectious Diseases’ and ‘The Lancet Public Health’ respectively on Tuesday confirm the long-standing suspicion that the British variant is more contagious. At the same time, there was also the suspicion that the British variant leads to a higher mortality, but these studies now contradict that.
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For their study, researchers from University College London used PCR tests to examine the viral load in corona-infected people and compare it with the number of serious illnesses and deaths over the same period. This shows that those infected with the British variant do indeed have a higher virus load. But the proportion of patients who died from Covid-19 was not higher in this variant.
The other study evaluated the symptoms of Covid patients, which they reported themselves through a health service app. Using genome sequence, the scientists were able to determine which variant those patients were infected with. This study also shows that no significant distinction can be made with regard to the severity of the disease or demonstrable long-term effects of an infection.
Both studies were conducted last winter in London and the south of England, where the B.1.1.7 variant spread at lightning speed at the time. This allowed the researchers to compare well between the original virus and the British variant. At the same time, they indicate that additional studies are needed to further confirm their findings.
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