The research reveals that Covid reinfection is more dangerous for elderly people, especially people with comorbidity
As many as one out of five samples recently genome sequenced by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) have turned out to be Omicron cases.
The samples were collected from the outdoor unit of the hospital between December 8 last year and January 8, BSMMU Vice Chancellor Prof Md Sharfuddin Ahmed said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
The lead of the research, Genetics and Molecular Biology Prof Laila Anjuman Banu, said: “We have analyzed 96 samples. Of them, 40 were suspected to be Omicron cases.
“After genome sequencing, we have found that nine out of the 40 were Omicron cases. As one of them was collected before December 8, we are saying that eight of them were confirmed as Omicron cases, which means 20% of them are Omicron cases.”
The nine are not included in the 55 Omicron cases shown on the GISAID website.
BSMMU VC Prof Sharfuddin said to diagnose Omicron, they had looked into three genes – S, N2 and E. If tS is missing then there is a possibility that the sample might carry the Omicron variant.
In line with World Health Organization (WHO) standards, it was necessary to conduct genome sequencing to confirm the presence of the variant, he added.
Prof Laila Anjuman, who is also chairman of the Department of Anatomy, said that it took almost five days to conduct genome sequencing of one sample. With their research they had been able to lower the cost of genome sequencing to Tk9,000 from Tk20,000.
Prof Sharfuddin said that the country had been seeing a surge in Covid patients in the last few days and a more complete scenario would be available at the end of January.
The Omicron variant has more spike protein mutations than Delta. As such, there is more chance to be infected by Omicron despite taking Covid 19 vaccines that were developed, targeting spike protein.
No Omicron case among hospitalized patients
BSMMU VC Prof Md Sharfuddin said that all Covid-19 patients admitted at BSMMU were infected with the Delta variant. “None was found to be infected by Omicron. It means the state of the patients who are infected by Delta variants is more severe.”
All the samples that were suspected to be Omicron cases were collected from field hospitals or labs.
Omicron till now has shown milder symptoms. So, people were less interested in undergoing tests. This might be also the reason behind no patients having been hospitalized with Omicron, the VC explained.
Dhaka TribuneHe however, said that for the same reason they were suspecting that the chances of Omicron spreading were more than that shown in their results.
Earlier, Directorate General of Health Services Prof ABM Khurshid Alam urged people not to take the variant lightly and to follow health rules as it could be deadlier if proper treatment could not be provided.
Delta dominating since June last year
The BSMMU has informed the media about its ongoing genome sequencing research that started six and a half months ago.
Till now, it has sequenced some 769 samples. The samples were collected from Dhaka Medical College Hospital, National Institute of Laboratory Medicine and outdoor unit and field hospitals of BSMMU.
The research team of Dr Laila Anjuman said that they had collected the samples of Covid patients only if the samples had a higher presence of the virus.
She said 53% of the infected were male.
Researchers have only considered Nasopharyngeal swab samples for genome sequencing to get best results using next generation sequencing.
Prof Sharfuddin Ahmed said that during the research they had seen that Covid reinfection was more dangerous for elderly people, especially people with comorbidity.
The researchers have divided the timeline into three periods.
During July last year, 98% of the cases were dominated by the Delta variant. 1% cases were Beta variant and 1% Eta variant. One nextstrain clade 20B case was also identified during the time.
Between August and December 7, the ratio of Delta variant infected cases was 99.31%.
And from December 8 to January 8, almost 80% of the cases were Delta variants and 20% were Omicron variants.
Prof Sharfuddin suspected that the number of Omicron infected patients could multiply in the near future.