In the event of a major corona outbreak, it has so far been very difficult to determine the source of the infection.
But that could change - thanks to a new analysis method.
Düsseldorf - It is a Herculean task that the employees of the health authorities have to perform in the corona pandemic: tracking chains of infection.
Who was infected with the coronavirus, when and where, and who are the contact persons who it could meet next.
These are questions that employees in health authorities can hardly answer in phases of exponentially increasing numbers of new infections.
It would be easier if you knew exactly where someone was infected with Corona.
But this is rarely known.
Coronavirus: New analysis method helps health department with contact tracking
But there are methods to determine the origin of infections and the spread.
In June 2020, the University of Düsseldorf started to identify possible clusters in cooperation with the health department.
At the time, scientists wanted to find out which routes of infection the virus took after the outbreak in Heinsberg.
And these findings have now been transferred to the big city, as reported by the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
.
The researchers speak of "real-time sequencing".
It is based on the fact that the genetic makeup of the coronavirus changes over time.
If the genome of the pathogen of two infected people is the same, it is clear that they have infected each other, Alexander Dilthey, professor of bioinformatics at the University of Düsseldorf, is
quoted
in the
FAZ
.
If the virus is transmitted further, it mutates.
Sequencing can be used to find out the virus sequence and thus draw conclusions about the chain of infection.
Researchers use "real-time sequencing" to locate corona infection sites
They send the data, which is provided with a sequence of numbers, to the Düsseldorf health department, which then takes action.
"If cases are related, we try to uncover the connections about the outbreak location with the help of surveys and collected data," says Lutz Ehlkes, top contact person follower.
The numbers make it possible to assign them to people.
The scientists, who are now sequencing 60 percent of the positive samples in Düsseldorf, were able to trace an infection cluster on a school trip.
A larger cluster could also be found in a Düsseldorf fitness studio.
The method also made it possible to find out that two infected people were only connected by one visit to a corona test center, where - as it later turned out - an employee had worked despite corona symptoms.
Corona infection detected in gym and supermarket
According to the RKI, most chains of infection have so far been identified in private households, but the study results from Düsseldorf show that infections can occur elsewhere.
For example, two of the clusters examined had only one thing in common: the two infected people were shopping in the same supermarket at the same time.
According to Ehlkes, the people either infected each other or an employee - possibly at the checkout - infected both.
A Rewe supermarket in Bavaria had to be closed due to a corona outbreak.
In the event of an outbreak in a nursing home, the sequenced virus strains from residents and nurses revealed that the residents, who had a very mild course of the disease, were infected by an unvaccinated nurse. A corona outbreak in a nursing home near Fürth did not end so lightly.
(mt)