Genomic and epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa

Since late 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has rapidly evolved to become a global pandemic. Each country was affected but with a varying number of infected cases and mortality rates. Africa was hit late by the pandemic but the number of cases rose sharpl...

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Published in:	PLoS neglected tropical diseases Vol. 15; no. 4; p. e0009335
Main Authors:	Lamptey, Jones, Oyelami, Favour Oluwapelumi, Owusu, Michael, Nkrumah, Bernard, Idowu, Paul Oluwagbenga, Adu-Gyamfi, Enoch Appiah, Czika, Armin, El-Duah, Philip, Yeboah, Richmond, Sylverken, Augustina, Olasunkanmi, Oluwatayo Israel, Owusu-Dabo, Ellis, Drosten, Christian, Adu-Sarkodie, Yaw
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 26.04.2021 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Africa Biology and life sciences Causes of Coronaviruses Epidemics Gene mutations Genetic aspects Health aspects Identification and classification Medicine and health sciences People and Places Research and Analysis Methods Africa
ISSN:	1935-2735, 1935-2727, 1935-2735
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Since late 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has rapidly evolved to become a global pandemic. Each country was affected but with a varying number of infected cases and mortality rates. Africa was hit late by the pandemic but the number of cases rose sharply. In this study, we investigated 224 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) in the early part of the outbreak, of which 69 were from Africa. We analyzed a total of 550 mutations by comparing them with the reference SARS-CoV-2 sequence from Wuhan. We classified the mutations observed based on country and region, and afterwards analyzed common and unique mutations on the African continent as a whole. Correlation analyses showed that the duo variants ORF1ab/RdRp 4715L and S protein 614G variants, which are strongly linked to fatality rate, were not significantly and positively correlated with fatality rates (r = -0.03757, P = 0.5331 and r = -0.2876, P = 0.6389, respectively), although increased number of cases correlated with number of deaths (r = 0.997, P = 0.0002). Furthermore, most cases in Africa were mainly imported from American and European countries, except one isolate with no mutation and was similar to the original isolate from Wuhan. Moreover, unique mutations specific to countries were identified in the early phase of the outbreak but these mutations were not regional-specific. There were common mutations in all isolates across the continent as well as similar isolate-specific mutations in different regions. Our findings suggest that mutation is rapid in SARS-CoV-2 in Africa and although these mutations spread across the continent, the duo variants could not possibly be the sole cause of COVID-19 deaths in Africa in the early phase of the outbreak.
Bibliography:	new_version ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pntd.0009335