A study UCBM reveals the mechanism of diffusion
23 March, 2020 - IThe molecular epidemiology group of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome led by Professor Massimo Ciccozzi, head of the Medical Statistics and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, conducted a study entitled “A doubt of multiple introduction of SARS-CoV-2 in Italy: a preliminary overview“ , published by the magazine Journal Medical Virology. The doctor also participated in the study Marta Giovanetti, the teacher Silvia Angeletti and Domenico Benvenuto, a sixth year medical student.
“The research we have carried out shows that in Italy two different epidemic events have occurred in two distinct and probably distant moments: one that comes directly from China, the other instead from a European country, probably Germany. This means that we Italians were not the spreaders of Europe, but those who suffered the event”, explains Professor Ciccozzi.
The work was conducted with molecular epidemiology techniques that exploit mathematical and statistical models applicable to all complete genomic sequences of the Coronavirus isolated in infected patients. “In practice, these techniques make it possible to say, on the basis of isolated genetic differences, whether a group of patients has suffered the same epidemic event or whether the epidemic event is due to a single patient. In this case it has been seen that there are two groups of epidemic events in Italy slightly spaced in time from each other”, added Ciccozzi.
However, the availability of only two complete Italian genomes isolated in Lazio and Lombardy has made it possible to understand how there have been multiple entries of the virus in Italy, probably at different times even if close together and from different places, suggesting a possible European linkage.
