Researchers from the Medical University of Bialystok have identified a genetic variant that doubles the risk of of catching and dying from COVID-19.
According to the university, the variant gene is thought to affect 14 percent of the Polish population and approx, 9 percent of the European population.
The university added that the discovery can help in early identification of those patients who are most at risk.
The discovery was made after testing 1,500 patients with coronavirus.
Project leader Professor Marcin Moniuszko, Vice-Rector for Development and Development, said: “Although the results of our study remain a scientific discovery, we hope that on their basis, a widely available diagnostic test identifying persons at a greater risk of severe disease will be developed.
“Even before the infection, such a test may still help to identify people who exposed to a severe course of the disease. Then, such persons could be covered with special care in advance, greater prophylactic (additional doses of protective vaccination) and medical (new therapies directed against SARS-COV-2) protection.”
President of the Medical Research Agency Dr. Radosław Sierpiński emphasises that such research results can help to stop the development of the pandemic.
The project was co-financed by the Medical Research Agency, in cooperation with the Institute of Lung Diseases and Tuberculosis in Warsaw and the tech company ImageneMe.
PAP - Science in Poland, Izabela Próchnicka
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