Houston Methodist finds multiple cases of significant coronavirus mutations, including Brazil strain
Infectious disease pathologists have sequenced more than 20,000 genomes of SARS-CoV-2 virus
Newswise — HOUSTON-(March 2, 2021) – Houston Methodist discovered 28 cases of coronavirus variants in its latest batches of virus genomes sequenced from patients with positive COVID-19 tests, including what might be the state’s first confirmation of four cases of the Brazil variant known as P.1. Houston is the first city in the U.S. to have all the major variants documented by genome sequencing.
“There is evidence to indicate that the Brazil P.1 variant may spread faster and be resistant to certain vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapies – much like the South Africa variant known as B.1.351 – and may still be able to cause disease in some people who are inoculated with Pfizer or Moderna vaccines,” said James M. Musser, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist. “The numbers of the major variants we have identified in our large sequencing study are disquieting. The genome data indicate that these important variants are now geographically widely distributed in the Houston metropolitan region.”