Wardha woman who attended family prog in city has UK variant

Nagpur: A 48-year-old woman from Wardha is the first from Vidarbha to be detected with the mutated United Kingdom (UK) variant of Covid-19, which reportedly has high transmissibility and mortality. The woman probably contracted the disease in the city, since neither she nor anyone in her family has travel history to any foreign country.
The report dated March 16 of National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, said the woman was infected by the B.1.1.7 variant.She is the only one among 17 cases of Wardha district to be detected with this variant as per the NIV report.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr Nitin Shinde told TOI, “B.1.1.7 variant is titled as Variant of Concern (VOC) and considered the major reason behind second wave and high number of cases in Europe. Transmissibility has increased 50% with this variant in Europe.”
This mutated variant also shares 50% credit for the spike in cases in the US. Case studies have revealed this variant is highly contagious and fatality rate is low. “Biggest worry for us will be that it is not yet clear whether antibodies developed from Covishield and Covaxin vaccines will be able to fight this variant,” he said.
Dr Shinde added, “It is very clear that this variant has spread in community if the woman and her family members have no travel history.”
With spike in cases in many districts of Vidarbha, large number of swab samples of positive patients were sent to National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The district, especially city, is witnessing highest growth in cases in the state since second week of February. Results of 74 samples sent from the district are awaited.
A homemaker, the woman told TOI, “My in-laws reside in the city. My brother-in-law was the first to test positive in my family on February 22. Later, eight members from our family tested positive including me. My bother-in-law had no comorbidities. He died while undergoing treatment in a private hospital in the city on March 8.”
The woman gave her sample at district general hospital, Wardha, on February 24 and her results came positive on February 25. The NIV received her swab sample on March 3 from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College run by Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha.
The woman added, “I reside with my two sons at Wardha and my husband works in Bhandara district. A relative got married in Wardha on February 15. Then, we came to Nagpur to attend ‘haldi’ ceremony of a relative on February 17. I had severe symptoms like fever, body ache, loose motion etc. I got admitted in IGGMCH on February 28 and was discharged on March 6. I have tested negative in repeat test after discharge.”
The woman said, “No one from our family member has ever visited any foreign country, or even other states in recent past. We also inquired with family which organized ‘haldi’ ceremony and none of them had symptoms or got tested.”
The woman was not aware about her swab samples testing positive in genome sequencing for UK variant when TOI contacted her. “I did not receive any call from anyone. How is it possible that my swab sample was detected with UK variant when none of us travelled anywhere,” she asked.
Eight residents of the city who returned from UK between November 25 and December 23 had tested positive in RT-PCR tests. One of them tested negative for the UK variant and genome sequencing on others was not done for various reasons.