MANILA — Filipino scientists are now trying to trace the source of coronavirus disease in the country, in a bid to get a clearer picture of the outbreak.
Through gene or genome sequencing, a process of decoding the genomes that make up an organism’s DNA or RNA, types of nucleic acid that store genetic information, scientists can determine the dominant COVID-19 strain.
“Yung sampling namin is very small but out of the 13 marami talaga Diamond Princess. At least 6 siguro. And sa Shanghai not so many. Sa palagay ko meron ding Europe doon,” she said when asked about the source of the virus. It is still unclear how the virus from Diamond Princess could have spread in other parts of the Philippines although the World Health Organization said then that the additional quarantine period for the repatriates was a “good decision” since “the disease may develop .”
“We are able to test for example na sa July ang karamihan sa samples na nasequence ay yung D614G na mutation,” Saloma said. Saloma also warned that the dominance of the G variant may also be because of “submission bias” because particular countries are flooding data banks with their sequences.Gene sequencing was how scientists in China identified the SARS-CoV-2. And their release of its genetic sequence allowed the rest of the world to develop their own test kits.
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