Title:
Transmission of SARS-COV-2 from China to Europe and West Africa: a detailed phylogenetic analysis
Authors:
Wasco Wruck & James Adjaye
Published:
bioRxiv, 2 October 2020
[Keep in mind that this article is a preprint and not yet peer reviewed]
From the abstract:
Background: SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic emerged in December 2019 in China and raised fears that it could overwhelm healthcare systems worldwide. In June 2020, all African countries registered human infections with SARS-CoV-2. The virus is mutating steadily and this is monitored by a well curated database of viral nucleotide sequences from samples taken from infected individual thus enabling phylogenetic analysis and phenotypic associations.
Methods: We downloaded from the GISAID database, SARS-CoV-2 sequences established from four West African countries Ghana, Gambia, Senegal and Nigeria and then performed phylogenetic analysis employing the nextstrain pipeline. Based on mutations found within the sequences we calculated and visualized statistics characterizing clades according to the GISAID nomenclature.