Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Davies, Nicholas G.
• Jarvis, Christopher I.
• Edmunds, W. John
• Jewell, Nicholas P.
• Diaz-Ordaz, Karla
• Keogh, Ruth H.

Titel

Increased mortality in community-tested cases of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7

Ist Teil von

• Nature (London), 2021-05, Vol.593 (7858), p.270-274

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7, a variant that was first detected in the UK in September 2020 1 , has spread to multiple countries worldwide. Several studies have established that B.1.1.7 is more transmissible than pre-existing variants, but have not identified whether it leads to any change in disease severity 2 . Here we analyse a dataset that links 2,245,263 positive SARS-CoV-2 community tests and 17,452 deaths associated with COVID-19 in England from 1 November 2020 to 14 February 2021. For 1,146,534 (51%) of these tests, the presence or absence of B.1.1.7 can be identified because mutations in this lineage prevent PCR amplification of the spike ( S ) gene target (known as S gene target failure (SGTF) 1 ). On the basis of 4,945 deaths with known SGTF status, we estimate that the hazard of death associated with SGTF is 55% (95% confidence interval, 39–72%) higher than in cases without SGTF after adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, residence in a care home, the local authority of residence and test date. This corresponds to the absolute risk of death for a 55–69-year-old man increasing from 0.6% to 0.9% (95% confidence interval, 0.8–1.0%) within 28 days of a positive test in the community. Correcting for misclassification of SGTF and missingness in SGTF status, we estimate that the hazard of death associated with B.1.1.7 is 61% (42–82%) higher than with pre-existing variants. Our analysis suggests that B.1.1.7 is not only more transmissible than pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 variants, but may also cause more severe illness. Analysis of community-tested cases of SARS-CoV-2 indicates that the B.1.1.7 variant is not only more transmissible than pre-existing variants, but may also cause more severe illness, and is associated with a higher risk of death.