Credit photo Nick Zonna
The Sars-CoV-2 vaccine does not completely stop the infection, especially in the case of variants, but is able to alleviate the symptoms, particularly in the elderly, where this is often severe.
The first clinical feedback in this sense was obtained from the Altamedica Research Clinical Institute in Rome, and is being published in the scientific journal Pathogens.
The Altamedica Laboratory in Rome, thanks to the use of the recent test developed for the characterization of SARS-CoV virus variant del-2, identified a particular case of a patient who, despite having received both doses of the vaccine (Pfizer), tested positive for the Brazilian variant.
The 83-year-old man received the second dose on February 16, 2021. On March 11, coming into contact with an affected colleague, he was infected with the virus and on March 17, in the absence of symptoms, he underwent a swab molecular and tested positive for Sars-CoV-2. Although the patient had an average antibody titre (IgG) after the vaccine, he was found to have a very high viral load and for this reason the variants were characterized.
“The test for the rapid identification of variants – explains Claudio Giorlandino, scientific director of the Altamedica Research Center – has identified the mutations of the protein S of the Brazilian lineage. Further confirmatory analysis performed by ‘Next Generation Sequencing’ of the viral genome confirmed the presence of the variant. Only three days after the first positive buffer the patient reported mild symptoms such as headache and flu symptoms which resolved within two days without any pharmacological help. On March 22, the patient tested completely negative. Recent scientific publications have shown that the Brazilian and African variantsa they are able to ‘escape’ from the immune system about 6 times greater than the classic variant “.
“Unfortunately, however – observed Giorlandino – the available information on vaccination coverage for emerging variants of Sars-CoV-2 is very scarce and relating to in vitro studies only, no trials or clinical studies on patients are yet available. With this ‘case report’ submitted and being published in the prestigious scientific journal Pathogens for the first time there is a clinical finding of how the vaccine, despite not being able to completely block the infection especially when we are faced with particular variants, is however able to mitigate the symptoms especially in elderly individuals where this is often severe “.