Genome sequencing of 24 Covid-19 patients, admitted at the Chattogram General Hospital (CGH) in April and May, detected 75 per cent of them with Beta variant (previously known as South African variant), and the rest with Alpha variant (previously known as the UK variant).
According to a research, five among the 24 patients were infected with the virus even though they had the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine two weeks earlier. The five were carrying the Beta variant. Besides, 10 among the tested patients had to receive treatment at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital. Eight out of the 10 were infected with the Beta variant. One infected with Alpha variant and another with Beta variant–of the ICU patients finally died of the virus.
The rest of the patients received treatment at the coronavirus isolation centre of the hospital.
Child Health Research Foundation’s (CHRF) scientist Senjuti Saha led the research on genome sequencing while CGH’s physicians HM Hamidullah Mehedi and Md Abdur Rab, who treated the Covid-19 patients, conducted the research as the chief scientists. Co-scientists and CGH physicians Md Minhazul Haque and Rajdwip Biswas assisted in the research supervised by Adnan Mannan, an associate professor genetic engineering and biotechnology under the Chittagong University.
A genomics team of CHRF is also involved in the research. The sequence data has been recorded at the global database Global initiative on sharing all influenza data (GISAID)–published from Germany. On Friday, GISAID published the sequence data on its website.
Seventy per cent of the 24 patients were aged below 40. The rest were between 41 and 65, according to the research findings.
The health condition of the patients with Beta variant was comparatively critical with fever, cough, sore throat and breathing problem while patients with Alpha variant showed short-term symptoms.
Researchers said that more than hundred patients with coronavirus symptoms had been admitted to CGH during April and May. Among them, only 24 with severe and minimal symptoms were closely monitored and their samples were prepared for genome sequencing.
Chief scientist HM Hamidullah Mehedi told Prothom Alo that the majority of the patients admitted to CGH during April and May were detected with Beta variant.
The research is still going on. Further details along with new information will come out after three months, he said.
Within 24 hours till Saturday 8:00am, at least 1,004 samples were tested at eight laboratories in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar. Among the tested patients, 158 were detected with Covid-19. Two patients died of the virus during the time.
Besides CGH, Covid-19 patients are taking treatment at the Chittagong Medical College and Hospital, BITID and some public and private hospitals.