Variantes de preocupação da Covid-19: estudo sobre o perfil dos pacientes portadores da linhagem Gama (P.1) no estado do Ceará, Brasil.

Abstract

Emerging at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China, Covid-19 as this virus is also called, spread frightfully across the planet. As with other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 also mutates. Among these, some variants of concern were arisen, highlight a Brazilian lineage called Gama or P.1, first identified in Manaus, Amazonas, in November 2020. It is believed that this lineage was much more transmissible than the variants, which may have contributed to the high of new cases and the increase in the number of deaths in the second wave of Covid-19 in Brazil. This variant contains a group of lineage-defining mutations, including several known biologically important mutations such as E484K, K417T, and N501Y. In this study, samples of the Gamma variant from the state of Ceará already identified by genomic sequencing and diagnostic samples by RT-PCR were selected to identify the profile of patients infected with the Gamma variant in the state of Ceará. Thus, based on the results obtained, the Gamma variant was detected in about 1/5 of the samples sequenced by the Genomic Surveillance Network in Fiocruz Ceará. The distribution between genders was similar with a slight predominance of females (53.4%) and the adult age group, which ranges from 20 to 49 years, accounted for more than half (54.04%) of those infected. Concerning race, the highest frequency of those infected with the Gamma variant was people who called themselves brown and the highest prevalence of Gamma VOC infection was found in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza with more than 40% of the samples collected in the state of Ceará. In addition, it was possible to identify that this variant was present in 146 of the 180 municipalities in Ceará, demonstrating its wide dissemination in the state.