Researchers at the Sacco hospital in Milan say they have isolated the Italian strain of the coronavirus, reports Lorenzo Tondo. The scientists say the discovery will help to develop a vaccine and new treatments to contain the virus.
Early in February, Italian researchers from the Spallanzani hospital in Rome successfully isolated Covid-19, which allowed the country to immediately activate tests on patients.
“The virus previously isolated by researchers at the Spallanzani hospital is precisely the Chinese one, originating in Wuhan, while the coronavirus that we have isolated prevents the viral strain spreading in Italy,” Claudia Balotta, an immunologist at the Sacco hospital, told the Corriere della Sera.
“Viruses reshuffle their genetic makeup to better bind to cells in the new host,” Tullio Prestileo, a doctor of infectious diseases at the Benfratteli hospital in Palermo, told the Guardian. “By spreading from one country to another, the virus originating in Wuhan will obviously reshuffle its genetic patrimony and the virus strain in China will have some slight differences from the one in Italy or Germany.”
Thanks to the discovery, the Italian researchers believe they can now “trace the journey of the virus from China to Europe and detect the date of its first spread in the country”.
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So coronavirus has finally arrived in sub-saharan Africa, with an Italian man who arrived in Nigeria three days ago becoming the country’s first case of the disease.
The case is in Lagos, a massive overcrowded city, which will raise fears that the virus might already have spread in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, and possibly further afield.
Nigeria is a major hub for air transport, commerce and culture. It has deep links with China, with continual and substantial traffic of people and goods. However, this first confirmed case appears to have originated in Italy.
The WHO’s regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, has warned that the “window of opportunity the continent has had to prepare for coronavirus disease is closing”.
Egypt had the first case of Covid-19 in Africa, announced on 14 February. Algeria declared it had a case on Tuesday – another Italian adult who arrived in the country on 17 February.
Earlier this month, officials at the WHO warned that porous borders, a continuing flow of travellers and poorly resourced healthcare systems meant the risk of an outbreak across Africa was “very, very high” and raised significant concerns about the ability of “fragile health systems” to cope with the epidemic.
But recent weeks have been used to reinforce testing regimes, isolation facilities and for public messaging too.
“Nigeria has dramatically improved its ability to manage the outbreak of a major pandemic since the Ebola scare in west Africa in 2014. Many of the lessons from keeping the country free of Ebola have informed the steps taken since the news of the coronavirus epidemic first broke,” wrote Folasade Ogunsola, professor of Clinical Microbiology, University of Lagos, on The Conversation website.
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