New discovery on Covid-19 makes getting a cure harder

By: STEPHEN OLOM

With the world battling the COVID-19 outbreak and medical experts all over the globe trying to come out with solutions, there seems to be a lot about the coronavirus that is yet to be known.

A recent study that was carried out in China and published in a medical journal about the coronavirus has shed some light on the mutation of the disease.

The results are quite terrifying as it shows how the virus has been underestimated by medical practitioners.

At least 30 different genetic mutations of the virus have occurred, with different parts of the world being infected by a different strain of the virus. This is likely going to cause difficulty in getting an overall cure.

The research was released on Sunday by Chinese professor, Li Lanjuan, of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.

According to the researchers, 11 different patients of the virus were randomly selected and analysed, from the results, it was detected that the virus had undergone 30 different mutations, and 19 of those were previously unknown to the medical experts.

“Sars-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity,” Li wrote in the paper.

As of Tuesday afternoon, COVID-19 has infected at least 2.5 million people Worldwide,

According to Professor Li’ and his team, the finding revealed that the most aggressive strains of the virus was capable of producing over 270 times more viral load than the weakest strain and they are more deadly to humans.

Professor Li advised that the diversity of the virus must be understood before a cure or vaccine is gotten.