Isolation of 4000 SARS-CoV-2 shows that contagiousness is associated with viral load, not vaccine or symptomatic status

Celine Boschi; Sarah Aherfi; Linda Houhamdi; Philippe Colson; Didier Raoult; Bernard La Scola

doi:10.1080/22221751.2021.2008776

Isolation of 4000 SARS-CoV-2 shows that contagiousness is associated with viral load, not vaccine or symptomatic status

Emerg Microbes Infect. 2021 Dec;10(1):2276-2278. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2021.2008776.

Authors

Celine Boschi^{1

2}, Sarah Aherfi^{1

2}, Linda Houhamdi², Philippe Colson^{1

2}, Didier Raoult^{1

2}, Bernard La Scola^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Microbes, Evolution, Phylogeny and Infection (MEPHI), UM63, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM), Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
² IHU Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France.

Abstract

Culture inoculation of 6722 nasopharyngeal samples since February 2020 allowed isolation of 3637 SARS-CoV-2 and confirmed that isolation rate is correlated to viral load, regardless symptomatology or vaccination status. Moreover, the delta variant is associated with higher viral loads and therefore higher rates of viral isolation, explaining its greater contagiousness.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; culture; delta variant; symptomatology; vaccination.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
COVID-19 / prevention & control
COVID-19 / transmission
COVID-19 / virology*
COVID-19 Vaccines / administration & dosage
COVID-19 Vaccines / genetics
COVID-19 Vaccines / immunology
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Nasopharynx / virology
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
SARS-CoV-2 / isolation & purification
SARS-CoV-2 / physiology*
Vaccination
Viral Load*

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, French National Agency for Research) under number 10-IAHU-03.