Northwestern Medicine researchers said they identified the P.1 for the first time. variant, which was first found earlier this year among travelers from Brazil during an airport screening in Tokyo. The Brazilian variant has since been found in several other countries.
ALSO SEE | Registration for the United Center vaccine continues despite early failures
“We identified it through our research program in response to mutations in the virus in the Chicago area,” said Dr. Egon Ozer, assistant professor of infectious disease medicine at Northwestern and a Northwestern Medicine physician.
Northwestern said that when the Chicago Dept. whether Public Health followed the individual, another person in the household was also unwell with COVID-19. However, no one in the household reported traveling outside of Illinois, the CDPH said.
Northwestern researchers said there is some evidence that this variant may spread more easily than other currently circulating strains of COVID-19. There are also concerns that the mutated form of the virus will reduce the susceptibility of the virus to immunization through vaccination or previous infection.
“This means that if someone was previously infected with COVID-19, the immune system may not be able to fight a second infection with this variant as effectively,” Ozer said. “There is also some concern that current vaccines may not be as effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 with this variant, although the extent to which they differ is unclear.”
A case of P.1. was first identified in the United States in Minnesota in late January and has since been identified in several other states.
The British and South African variants have already arrived here. In total, Illinois has reported 88 known variant cases.