“For the delta, according to our calculations, 450 BAU is enough”
Olga Karpova, head of the Department of Virology at Moscow State University, expressed her version of what level of antibodies a person should have in order to be protected from infection with coronavirus. She also suggested what next infection could most likely replace SARS-CoV-2.
According to Olga Vyacheslavovna, who made a presentation at Moscow State University, after a few months ago WHO developed international conventional units to indicate the level of antibodies to coronavirus (BAU), the discrepancies in this matter came to an end.
– Now it is clear, – says Olga Karpova, – that in order to neutralize the Wuhan version of SARS-CoV-2, 30 BAU units are enough, the South African version – 150 BAU, for the delta, according to our calculations (here I will argue with Academician Alexander Gunzburg, let’s designate the figure as 300 BAU) is quite a bit more – 450-500 BAU.
The scientist also dotted the i’s about animal disease. So, pigs become infected with COVID-19 only with experimental infection, they do not have clinical manifestations of the disease, they do not transmit the virus to relatives. In poultry, the picture is exactly the same as that of pigs. But dogs have the opportunity to become infected in nature, but they tolerate COVID-19 without symptoms and do not transmit to each other. Perhaps one of the highest levels of perception of the coronavirus is found in cats and macaques. They become infected and get sick with clinical manifestations, and transmit the virus to each other.
Among other issues related to coronavirus infection, the professor touched on the virus, which may be replacing SARS-CoV-2. According to Karpova, this is the SADS virus, which is 95% similar to the SARS-CoV virus and appeared in the same Guangdong province as that one. Like the SARS-CoV virus, SADS is linked to the Rhinolophus HKU2 bat coronavirus. It is transmitted through the feces of horseshoe bats to pigs and causes them to experience acute diarrhea. Piglets under 5 days old die from it with a probability of up to 90%.
The first outbreak occurred in 2017, where it killed more than 24,000 piglets on 4 farms. In 2018 and 2019, the virus reappeared in China, but there were no large-scale losses. Fortunately, this virus has not been detected in humans, but studies have shown that it is capable of multiplying in human cell culture. It is possible that the pig will become the transmission link from which the virus will spread to humans. When asked how we can protect ourselves from the new virus, the scientist replied: “Get vaccinated and revaccinated in time.”
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