Japanese Research Team: "COVID-19 Virus Becomes More Infectious Through Mutations"

Revealed Through Animal Experiments
Research Findings Published in US Science Magazine Science

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] It has been proven that the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) becomes more infectious as it undergoes genetic mutations.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 16th, a research team led by Professor Yoshiro Kawaoka of the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo recently published these findings in the American scientific journal Science.

The research team artificially created variant viruses like COVID-19 and used hamsters to compare the infectivity via droplets with the early epidemic virus identified in China.

As a result, among hamsters exposed to the variant virus and droplet environment, 5 out of 8 were infected after 2 days, whereas none of the hamsters exposed to droplets of the early epidemic virus identified in China were infected.

Based on this, the research team estimated that the infectivity of the recently circulating COVID-19 is stronger compared to the initial virus.

However, they added the condition that since this is an experiment using hamsters, it cannot be definitively stated that the same applies to humans.

Through this experiment, the research team also confirmed that the pathogenicity, which causes disease by infecting the host, did not increase in the variant virus.

Based on this, Professor Kawaoka expressed hope that vaccines being developed based on the early epidemic virus would also be effective against the variant virus.

Professor Kawaoka said, "The variant virus with increased infectivity may have spread worldwide in a short period," adding, "Since the infectivity in other animals cannot necessarily be considered the same as in humans, it is necessary to analyze human infection data in the future."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.