A coronavirus mutation found in the US may be less deadly but more contagious than the original virus, an expert from Singapore said this week.
Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at the National University of Singapore, said the D614G mutation is associated with lower mortality rates, implying that it is less lethal, Reuters reported Monday. This mutation has been present in Europe and North America since February and has since been confirmed in parts of Asia.
“Maybe it’s okay to have a virus that is more contagious but less deadly,” Tambyah, the president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, told the news service.
The expert of infectious disease said that most viruses become less deadly over time because they mutate to keep the virus alive from the individuals.
“It is in the interest of the virus to infect more people, but not to kill them, because a virus depends on the host for food and shelter,” he said, according to Reuters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no evidence that the D614G mutation causes more serious illness.
Malaysia’s director general of health, Noor Hisham Abdullah, told residents to be more careful after officials thought they had found the strain in two clusters of infections, Reuters reported. He said the mutated virus was 10 times more infected and warned that vaccines generated might not be effective against the strain.
Singapore has also confirmed the mutation, but Sebastian Maurer-Stroh of the Science, Technology and Research Agency said restrictions have prevented its spread.
Tambyah and Maurer-Stroh said the mutations are unlikely to change the virus enough to make vaccines ineffective, according to the news service.
The coronavirus has infected more than 21.9 million people, killing at least 775,439, according to data from John Hopkins University.
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