No evidence of coronavirus changing its severity: Study

WASHINGTON: Researchers have rejected a recent finding that the novel coronavirus gradually loses its potency and that the severity of illness is decreasing.

According to the Italian doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Italy, a test run over the past 10 days showed that a viral load in quantitative terms was much less compared to the one carried out a month or two months ago.  “The virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,” Zangrillo was quoted as saying.

Several other experts have advised remaining cautious as the clinical findings in Italy do not reflect any change in the infection itself.

“There is no evidence that the novel coronavirus has changed both in terms of the transmissibility and the severity of the disease,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization (WHO).

“In terms of the transmissibility, that has not changed,” Van Kerkhove said.  The virus still has an ability to cause a super-spreading event, while continuing to cause severe disease in about 20 percent of infected individuals,” she added.

Experts believe that Zangrillo’s clinical observations most likely shows that with the peak of the outbreak past Italy, there is less virus in circulation, and people may be less likely to be exposed to high doses of it.

Vaughn Cooper, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said that the new coronavirus mutates slowly compared with influenza and other microbes, and its genetic changes appear to be ‘mostly inconsequential’.

The study of infectious diseases shows that all viruses evolve over time, and the novel coronavirus is likely to become less lethal, joining the previous four coronaviruses in causing common colds. However, there is no concrete evidence to prove the case.