A laboratory study conducted in South Africa showed that the emerging corona virus has evolved to become more pathogenic, indicating a new mutant that can cause more disease than the current Omicron strain.
The study was conducted using COVID-19 samples from an immunocompromised individual over the course of six months.
The study, by the same lab that first tested the Omicron strain for vaccine resistance last year, used samples from a person infected with HIV.
Over the past 6 months, the virus initially caused the same level of cell fusion and death as the Omicron subtype PA1 mutant. However, as it evolved, these levels rose to become similar to the first version of Covid-19 that was identified in Wuhan, China.
The study, which was headed by Alex Segal at the Africa Institute for Health Research in Durban, South Africa, suggests that COVID-19 pathogens can continue to mutate and a new variant may cause more disease and death than the relatively weak Omicron strain.
The study has not yet been peer-reviewed and is based primarily on laboratory work on samples from a single individual.
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