A team of American geneticists concluded in a study published yesterday that the new Corona virus began to circulate in New York in February, before launching a large-scale examination campaign in the state, and that the source of infection is Europe. According to Agence France-Presse".
"Most of the cases appear to have come from Europe, and I think this is partly because there has been an emphasis on stopping flights from China," said Adriana Heighy, a geneticist at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University.
The first patient whose data was analyzed added that he had not traveled abroad, which means that he had contracted the infection in New York. "By looking at the specific changes in the virus he carries, we were able to say that the virus came from England," she said.
She pointed out that there is a link between what the study revealed and a wave of strange cases of pneumonia that doctors in New York were working on treating before launching a large-scale examination campaign in the state. The specialists tracked the injuries of 75 people who had taken samples in 3 hospitals in New York.
These genetic investigations can allow doctors to come up with specific strains that cause more serious symptoms than others, and thus require different treatment.
The team of specialists intends to expand its program and increase samples to 200 per week in order to access a database of thousands of genomes.