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Observational Study
. 2023 Jul 5:11:1186463.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1186463. eCollection 2023.

Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the Brazilian state of Pará

Catarina T Pinho  1 , Amanda F Vidal  2 , Tatianne Costa Negri Rocha  2 , Renato R M Oliveira  2 , Maria Clara da Costa Barros  1   3 , Laura Closset  1 , Jhully Azevedo-Pinheiro  1   3 , Cíntia Braga-da-Silva  1   3 , Caio Santos Silva  1 , Leandro L Magalhães  1   3 , Pablo Diego do Carmo Pinto  1 , Giordano Bruno Soares Souza  1 , José Ricardo Dos Santos Vieira  1 , Rommel Mario Rodríguez Burbano  4 , Maísa Silva de Sousa  5 , Jorge Estefano Santana de Souza  6   7 , Gisele Nunes  2 , Moises Batista da Silva  8 , Patrícia Fagundes da Costa  8 , Claudio Guedes Salgado  8 , Rita Catarina Medeiros Sousa  9 , Wim Maurits Sylvain Degrave  10 , Ândrea Ribeiro-Dos-Santos  1   3 , Guilherme Oliveira  2
Affiliations
Observational Study

Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the Brazilian state of Pará

Catarina T Pinho et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: After three years since the beginning of the pandemic, the new coronavirus continues to raise several questions regarding its infectious process and host response. Several mutations occurred in different regions of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, such as in the spike gene, causing the emergence of variants of concern and interest (VOCs and VOIs), of which some present higher transmissibility and virulence, especially among patients with previous comorbidities. It is essential to understand its spread dynamics to prevent and control new biological threats that may occur in the future. In this population_based retrospective observational study, we generated data and used public databases to understand SARS-CoV-2 dynamics.

Methods: We sequenced 1,003 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from naso-oropharyngeal swabs and saliva samples from Pará from May 2020 to October 2022. To gather epidemiological data from Brazil and the world, we used FIOCRUZ and GISAID databases.

Results: Regarding our samples, 496 (49.45%) were derived from female participants and 507 (50.55%) from male participants, and the average age was 43 years old. The Gamma variant presented the highest number of cases, with 290 (28.91%) cases, followed by delta with 53 (5.28%). Moreover, we found seven (0.69%) Omicron cases and 651 (64.9%) non-VOC cases. A significant association was observed between sex and the clinical condition (female, p = 8.65e-08; male, p = 0.008961) and age (p = 3.6e-10).

Discussion: Although gamma had been officially identified only in December 2020/January 2021, we identified a gamma case from Belém (capital of Pará State) dated May 2020 and three other cases in October 2020. This indicates that this variant was circulating in the North region of Brazil several months before its formal identification and that Gamma demonstrated its actual transmission capacity only at the end of 2020. Furthermore, the public data analysis showed that SARS-CoV-2 dispersion dynamics differed in Brazil as Gamma played an important role here, while most other countries reported a new infection caused by the Delta variant. The genetic and epidemiological information of this study reinforces the relevance of having a robust genomic surveillance service that allows better management of the pandemic and that provides efficient solutions to possible new disease-causing agents.

Keywords: Amazon; Brazil; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; gamma; genomic surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of the VOCs and their sub-variants in all continents between October 2020 and November 2022, according to the GISAID database.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of Gamma-like variants in all continents, in Brazil (both from GISAID), and in the state of Pará and in its capital, Belém (own data), in the period of May 2020 to October 2022. Data is presented as the log of the absolute prevalence count.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prevalence of the VOCs and its sub-variants in the Brazilian regions (from GISAID) and in the state of Pará and in its capital, Belém (own data), in the period of May 2020 to October 2022.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Prevalence of P1-like and non-Gamma variants in the Brazilian regions (from GISAID) and in the state of Pará and in its capital, Belém (own data), in the period of May 2020 to September 2022.
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