Professor virologist spoke about COVID-19 mutations
– Sergey Viktorovich, do any viruses tend to change over time? How has the Chinese virus changed lately?
– The population of the COVID-19 virus, apparently, was initially heterogeneous and gradually changing. So, in the Chinese province of Hubei, where he began his journey around the world, the mortality rate is at about 4 percent. One of the hypotheses is related to the fact that the virus there is in many cases “fresh”, which directly transferred to humans from animals. In other regions of China, where the virus is already transmitted from person to person, and in other countries, mortality is generally substantially lower. But it seems that such an adaptation also affected his ability to be transmitted from person to person. As a result, it has become easier to spread.
– Did this speed exceed the 2002-2003 SARS virus spread rate?
– If you look at the absolute dynamics, the current virus is transmitted more easily. But in terms of mortality, SARS was “meaner”: about 10%.
– Is there any new data on the transmission of coronavirus from person to person?
– As you can see from the publications, the current virus has a wide range of incubation periods. And an infected person can infect others without suspecting it. And the transmission coefficient is certainly greater than the flu virus. Now experts are comparing coronavirus with that of measles virus, one of the most efficiently transmitted viruses from person to person. And it is very similar to the fact that this is not only the respiratory tract, but also the fecal-oral route. For example, you can’t not only drink from the same cup with the patient, but you should not use the handles of taps and doors after it without disinfection.
– Virologist Frederic Tangy of the Pasteur Institute (France) said in an interview with RFI that the mortality from coronavirus is almost 100 times higher than the mortality from seasonal flu. Do you agree with that?
– Approximately the way it is: 0.01 percent dies from seasonal flu, and about 2% from Covid-2019.
– We all eat in cafes and canteens. Is there any risk here?
– Actually, there, as you know, they wash the dishes, mainly with the help of dishwashers. And the viruses used in them detergents effectively destroy.
– What about the development of an antiviral agent in China?
– Chinese scientists began testing on patients with several drugs at once. Some of these drugs have been successfully used for years to slow down HIV infection and to treat hepatitis C. The fact is that coronavirus and HIV have at least one enzyme that is similar in properties – a protease. Will this drug work against Covid-2019, while the question is …
As far as I know, at least two variants of test systems for coronavirus have been developed at the Vector vector center in Novosibirsk. How perfect they are, only a check on existing patients will show. In addition, it is necessary to have not one, but several samples of live viruses, with their use it is necessary to develop model serum panels for testing the sensitivity and specificity of test systems, compare the new virus with SARS-coronavirus (SARS), and test potential therapeutic drugs in animals.
– Russian scientists, according to the head of Rospotrebnadzor, finally got a live virus to develop drugs against coronavirus, but it is not clear who shared with us. During your work at Vektor, you worked on decoding the genomes of the Ebola and Marburg viruses in the early 1990s, and later SARS. Then you had live viruses?
– Of course they were. How can one learn something natural without having it? Samples of SARS-coronavirus (SARS) were transmitted to us by colleagues from Germany and the USA. There were no samples from China then. And the Ebola and Marburg viruses in the Vector center have been available since the late 80s.
– How many Russians had the SARS virus?
Judging by official information, it seems that there are already five, but all in a light form.
– So was the SARS vaccine created – or was it no longer needed due to the fact that the virus itself “disappeared”?
– This is a good question, the answer to which is useful for everyone who is fighting dangerous viruses. SARS-human coronavirus (SARS) evolved from bats, passing the intermediate stage of adaptation in organisms through palm civet, relatives of the mongoose. And, apparently, it was from these animals that he spread to a person. Civett was then quickly “calculated” and, under the threat of criminal punishment, they were banned from captive breeding, as a result of which all artisanal farms for their reproduction were destroyed. Such quick and well-coordinated actions, which Chinese experts periodically demonstrate to us, are the main key to success in the fight against any such virus.
– For COVID-19, they also found an intermediary – pangolin. Has it also been banned to breed?
– The suspected pangolins are now used in China not only for food, but also therapeutic preparations of traditional Chinese medicine are also prepared from its organs. Whether their breeding is already forbidden, I do not know yet. But the “wild” markets for the sale of live animals in China have just been banned.
– The head of the Polish Ministry of Health recently announced that the cats closest to us, cats, can also become carriers of the coronavirus. Is he right, are they potentially dangerous for us? And Hong Kong, by the way, seems to have found an infected dog …
– The existence of coronaviruses in cats, dogs, poultry and other animals has long been known. Vaccines against coronaviruses of birds, cats have been developed and are being sold; there are test systems for their detection. Only in humans these viruses do not cause disease. At least, no such cases have been identified. In general, all the animals around us have their own coronaviruses.
See also: “Coronavirus: the latest news on February 28 upset”
– .
