More contagious but not more serious or lethal. In Italy, the English variant of Covid-19, B.1.1.7, is now 86.7%. Now two new research has found that people who contract it have no worse symptoms or a greater risk of developing Long Covid than those infected with a different strain. IS’ the high concentration of viral load in the swabs to highlight that it is more transmissible, allowing it to spread faster than the original coronavirus detected in Wuhan in 2019. But mortality does not change.
Studies published on Lancet collected data between September and December 2020, when B.1.1.7 began to spread in England, and now provide important insights and concrete help in research on this and other variants of Covid-19, after the emergence of mutations has raised concerns not only that they may spread more easily but also be more deadly and not sensitive to vaccines developed on the basis of the original strain.
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Data so far indicated that B.1.1.7 is more transmissible, with some evidence suggesting it is associated with more hospitalizations and deaths. But the observational study of patients in London hospitals carried out before the second wave, when the pressure on the healthcare system could not affect the outcome of the treatment, suggests that the variant is not associated with more severe disease or higher mortality. And also the other study, based on data recorded by 37,000 users on the Covid Symptom app, found no evidence that B.1.1.7 shows altered symptoms or more probabilities of Long Covid.
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The article published on The Lancet Infectious Diseases is a cohort and genome-wide sequencing study of the virus involving patients admitted to University College London Hospital and North Middlesex University Hospital between November 9 and December 20, 2020. Among 341 positives, in 198 (58% ) had B.1.1.7: of them, 36% became seriously ill compared with 38% of those infected with a different strain. Patients with the English variant tended to be younger, with 55% of cases under the age of 60 compared with 40% of other lineages. According to the PCR tests performed, the samples of B.1.1.7 contained greater quantities of virus and therefore were more contagious. But this did not affect mortality: among those who developed a severe form, with the English variant, deaths amounted to 16%, with 31 cases out of 198, compared to 17% of the others, or 24 out of 141 people affected by other variants.
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“One of the strengths of our study is the moment in which it was carried out, ie at the same time as the spread of B.1.1.7 throughout London – he explains Eleni Nastouli University College London Hospitals Nhs Foundation Trust – Analysis of the variant before the peak of hospital admissions gave us a crucial time window to gain insight into how B.1.1.7 differs in severity or mortality in hospitalized patients from the strain of first wave. Our study is also the first in the UK to use whole genome sequencing data generated in real time. As more and more variants emerge, using this approach could help us better understand their key characteristics and any additional public health challenges. “
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The article published on The Lancet Public Health instead analyzed data entered by 36,920 patients on the UK’s Covid-19 epidemiological research app between 28 September and 27 December 2020. Test results and symptom reports were combined with surveillance data from the Public Health England to examine associations between proportion, disease duration, reinfection rates and transmissibility. “Thanks to these data we were able to confirm the greater transmissibility of this variant but we also showed that B.1.1.7 responded to the blocking measures and does not seem to escape the immunity acquired with exposure to the original virus”, says the co-author Claire Steves.
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The analysis revealed no statistically significant associations between the type or overall number of symptoms experienced between one variant and another. The reinfection rate was low: only 0.7% (249 cases out of 36,509) tested positive again for the English variant after 90 days from the first infection. Even for those who experienced Long Covid, with symptoms persisting for more than 28 days, the correlation coefficient was -0.003. However, the authors found that B.1.1.7 increased reproduction R number by 1.35 times compared to the original strain. An estimate similar to those of other studies that investigated the transmissibility of the variant.
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“The wealth of data acquired by the Covid Symptom Study app provided a unique opportunity to look for potential changes in symptoms and disease duration associated with B.1.1.7,” he says. Mark Graham of King’s College – the results suggest that, although it spreads more easily, the variant does not alter the type or duration of symptoms experienced. It also reassures the fact that vaccines and public health measures have proven effective against the variant ”.
“This study confirms that the English variant has higher transmissibility and has largely contributed to the sharp increase in cases in the UK during the study period as well as the third waves taking place in European countries – he points out Britta Jewell from Imperial College London – however, Graham and colleagues reach slightly different conclusions on differences in symptoms than the UK national statistics, which report a higher percentage of individuals with at least one more symptom than those without B.1.1 .7. However, the researchers recognized the limitations of using self-reported data for this type of analysis, which could cause confusion and explain some of the differences. However the results suggest that the English variant is similar to the other Covid lineages ”.
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