The current spike in the number of Coronavirus cases in India can be attributed to a number of factors, including new variants of the pathogen, says Ravi Gupta, Professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge. There’s no evidence yet of any of the mutated strains being more dangerous than the original one, he told StratNews Global.
Prof. Gupta, who was named last year as one of Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People of the Year’ in recognition of his work to bring about the second-ever cure of an HIV-infected person (The London Patient), has been focused on Covid-19 of late, drawing from his research on HIV. “SARS is not like influenza which causes a short infection. SARS is more like HIV in that it can cause long-term infections because it’s able to infect different cell types, not just in the lungs but in other parts of the body,” he said. Listen in for more.
Podcast Producer: Manas R. Tarai
