Increased mutation in the new coronavirus “could be a good thing”, said a top expert.
Paul Tambyah, a former consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said a mutation in coronavirus that has made the rounds in Europe, North America and parts of Asia could affect more people infect, but it kills less.
The new strain, known as D614G, has recently been shown in Malaysia and the Philippines.
Tambyah said that evidence suggests that the proliferation of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world coincides with a drop in death rates, suggesting it is less lethal, in an interview with Reuters.
“Maybe it’s good to have a virus that is more contagious but less deadly,” he said.
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Tambyah’s remarks come after Malaysia’s director general of health, Noor Hisham Abdullah, on Sunday urged people to take greater precautionary measures as tensions have now been found in the country.
Writing in a Facebook FB,
post, Abdullah said the D614G strain was found 10 times more likely to infect other individuals than those reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It also spreads more easily through so-called super-spreader individuals. “The cooperation of humans is very much needed so that together we can break the chain of infection through each mutation,” he wrote.
Still, Tambyah said, even if the virus mutates, that will not make potential vaccines any less effective.
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Research in June by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found that D614G had the effect of marking the number of functional spikes on the viral surface. These spikes are what cause the virus to bind to cells and infect.
“The number – if density – of functional spikes on the virus is four or five times greater because of this mutation,” said Scripps virologist Hyeryun Choe, senior author of the study.
The World Health Organization has said there is no evidence that the strain leads to a more serious illness, Reuters noted.
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