Italian Virologist Massimo Clementi assures that the viral load of the coronavirus is 100 times less than in March

• An Italian expert assures that the viral load of the coronavirus is 100 times less than in March: “It is as if it had aged”

• Virologist Massimo Clementi revealed the findings of his latest study

The director of the Microbiology Laboratory of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Massimo Clementi, one of the top Italian experts in the first line of the pandemic in his country, led a scientific study in which it was verified that the viral load he had SARS-CoV-2 – technical name of the new coronavirus – in early March has decreased.

The work compared the “viral load” – the virus concentration – of 100 patients admitted to the hospital in the first 15 days of March with that of 100 patients arrived in late May. “The amount of virus present in patients who have come to us from May is enormously lower compared to those who entered in March,” he reported.

This phenomenon, according to the Italian I don’t know how it works only in your country but in practically the whole worldeven in areas like Florida “where confinement has been much milder than in Spain and Italy” this is happening, “Someone has said that it is as if the virus has aged. ”

“There are already several weeks in which the clinicians of our hospital indicate to virologists that the clinical picture is changing. There are no longer patients who need to immediately enter the ICU and assisted breathing, “he revealed.

Clementi explained in dialogue with El Mundo thatthis difference is not due to a mutation but it is as if there was an “adaptation” to the new hostthat we are humans. Furthermore, he explains thatThis may be “very positive data for the future” because it is possible that in the case of a new wave “the virus would be much less aggressive”.

“Replication is a fundamental element for a virus. It infects in order to replicate in the host’s cells. If this action, as we observe, does not occur efficiently, it may be due to several reasons. It could be due to a minimal genetic mutation that we still do not see and that we may see in the near future. Or by any other factor that does not favor the very violent infection that we saw at the beginning. ”

“In the first phase it did much more damage because it had reached a host, the human being, who was unknown to him. Now there is an adaptation, of one with the other. It is possible that this is a very positive fact for the future. Because, even if SARS-CoV-2 reactivates in the coming months, the virus would be much less aggressive, ”he said.

He added: “It is an absolutely macroscopic difference. But it has nothing to do with group immunity. The weakness of the virus is somewhat independent of the fact that immunity can develop against it. It is, as I said before, an adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 to humans ”

With the new observations, the expert is more concerned with a new epidemic from a new virus than with the evolution of the current pandemic “destined to go out.”

Still on alert in some regions

The Italian Higher Institute of Health (ISS) warned today that “there are no critical situations” of coronaviruses in the country, but clarified that in certain parts there is a still significant presence before which we must not lower our guard. The analysis carried out by the ISS is based on data obtained between May 25 and 31 and highlights that no region has an instantaneous basic reproduction number (Rt), which indicates the contagion capacity of the virus, greater than 1, a threshold considered a barrier to the spread of the pandemic.

Although the transmission curve is under control, the institute explains that Lombardy (north), the region most affected by the pandemic, continues to have a high Rt of 0.91 in that week analyzed, which means that regional and national authorities they must continue to monitor the evolution of the pandemic in this area.