The corona virus has spread rapidly almost all over the world. Researchers have now followed the path and origin of the new Sars-CoV-2. The result is amazing.
- The corona virus * has worried the global community since early January 2020.
- Scientists are trying to find out everything about the novel virus Sars-CoV-2 *.
- A team of researchers has now analyzed the spread of the virus.
- Corona virus: our guide through reporting *
Kiel - How did the Sars-CoV-2 spread from China to other continents around the world? Researchers have been asking this question since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan.
The path of the Sars-CoV-2 from China to the world seems to be different than previously thought. The virus has now reached Italy via Germany and Singapore, scientists have now found out.
The findings were published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States) and show that other virus types have spread in Europe and America than in China. The German Medical Journal also reports on the study.
Corona virus: This is how Sars-CoV-2 spread throughout the world
The University of Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) announced in a press release that researchers from Germany and Cambridge (Great Britain) were involved in the analysis of genetics and archeology. The scientists examined a wide variety of samples from human Sars-CoV-2 genomes - the virus genetic information - using a very special method. They took a close look at the genetic relationships between 160 human Covid-19 viruses. This phylogenetic network analysis included Covid-19 viruses that had been collected in laboratories worldwide from the beginning of the outbreak until March 2020.
Mutations of the coronavirus: researchers find three central variants A, B and C.
The scientists found three central variants, which they designated A, B and C. The viruses are closely related, but they can be distinguished by mutations. Type B soon developed from type A. Another mutation resulted in type C on type B.
- With type A , the researchers identified the variant of the human coronavirus that is most similar to the bat coronavirus and thus probably the ancestor of all human coronaviruses.
- This virus type A can be found in the epicenter of the corona outbreak in Wuhan, but interestingly, type B prevails there. B type is the most common type in East Asia.
- In the first phase of the coronavirus outbreak, however, they reached types A - and C in Europe, Australia and America.
- Type-C was documented early in Singapore and caused many of the first Covid-19 infections in Europe.
Coronavirus - microscopic picture
© dpa / Uncredited
Coronavirus: Global infection chain can be tracked closely
The researchers are convinced that this method could be used to precisely trace the infection routes for documented Covis 19 cases. The phylogenetic network explains, for example, why the search for “patient zero” ended up in a cul-de-sac and why the coronavirus could spread freely in Italy.
It was originally assumed that the Italian “patient zero” - the first case of infection in northern Italy - had contracted a contact in Wuhan. However, this contact person was tested negatively.
The phylogenetic network now indicates at least two independent early infection routes in Italy . A trail leads to an employee of the automotive supplier Webasto in Gauting near Munich. The other trace relates the outbreak to a so-called “Singapore branch”.
Coronavirus on a trip - patient leaves a virus trail
A graphic (see below) shows how a patient from Ontario (Canada) is in the phylogenetic network Cluster B. This patient had traveled from Wuhan in central China to Guangdong in southern China and then returned to Canada. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 on January 27. In the family tree analysis, two “ancestor nodes” in Foshan and Shenzhen (both in the province of Guangdong) were derived.
A virus on the move: The Ontario patient's virus is in the phylogenetic network Cluster B.
© Michael Forster, University of Kiel
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
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