How doctors found COVID-19 variant in Quebec
`Bit of luck' and a `bit of detective work' led to discovery of variant at Shriners hospital lab
Dr. Raymond Tellier was reviewing positive COVID-19 test results two weeks ago when one caught his eye.
Analyzing the printout that accompanies the results, the medical microbiologist realized something was off.
“Wait a minute,” he said to himself, reading the three curves on the graphic before him. “This is wrong.”
The result had come from the laboratory at Montreal's Shriners Hospitals for Children, which receives up to 500 samples for analysis from the Mcgill University Health Centre each day.
Laboratory technicians at the Shriners had also flagged the result as interesting. Now Tellier, an associate professor at Mcgill University, sought to know if it meant what he thought it did.
His team sent the sample to Quebec's public health laboratories for sequencing. Earlier this week, it confirmed what everyone suspected: The new, more contagious coronavirus variant first detected in the United Kingdom had arrived in Quebec.
“It's how discoveries work. You start with one thing that doesn't quite fit and then you look further into it,” Dr. Frank Rauch, director of clinical laboratories at the Shriners, said on Wednesday.
“And it was an interesting discovery for us.”
On Tuesday, the Quebec government announced the first case of the new variant had been detected in the province.
The health ministry said the person in question had been in contact with a family member who returned from the United Kingdom on Dec. 11 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 13.
The variant was only detected in one of three people the returning family member had contacts with.
The strain is believed to be more infectious and has prompted many countries, including Canada, to temporarily suspend flights from the U.K. Quebec's announcement followed Ontario confirming two cases of the virus variant on Saturday.
The variant being discovered at the Shriners and MUHC, Tellier and Rauch said on Wednesday, was the result of a “bit of luck” and a “bit of detective work.”
The laboratory at the Shriners uses a different method to test for COVID-19 than most other labs in Quebec.
Though a children's hospital, like many other health centres across the world, the Shriners pivoted some of its efforts when the pandemic struck to help in the fight against COVID-19.
The test kit the hospital uses takes a multi-target approach that looks for three genes at the same time in the virus, including the S-gene, where much of the mutation of the U.K. variant occurs.
“It's a bit technical,” Tellier warned, but each positive test result comes with a graphic detailing the findings. In the case of the test used at the Shriners, the graphic usually shows three different coloured lines curving upward.
“But lo and behold, there were only two curves,” Tellier said of the recent discovery. “The S-curve was missing.”
It's that discrepancy that caught Tellier's attention. The team conducted more testing and verification, including contacting the manufacturer behind the test kits to rule out a technical glitch, before sending the sample to the provincial lab.
Had that particular sample not been tested at the Shriners, it's possible the variant would not have been detected in Quebec yet, both doctors said Wednesday. That idea also lends credence to what many public health experts have suggested in recent weeks: The variant has most likely already been circulating in Quebec.
Tellier said he hopes the discovery will drive home the idea labs should dedicate more resources to monitoring how the virus is mutating with time.
“You have to be wary of mutants that would have some worrisome or dangerous properties and, therefore, warrant surveillance,” he said.
There's no evidence the new variant causes more severe disease or that the approved COVID-19 vaccines will be any less effective against it.
Because it's believed to be more contagious, however, Tellier and Rauch said they had hoped it wouldn't arrive in Quebec.
But they also knew it was somewhat inevitable. Even with flights from the U.K. suspended, the virus had been detected in other countries and Canadian provinces. It could be further introduced by other returning travellers.
Both doctors agreed its arrival in Quebec stresses the importance of respecting the public health measures in effect, especially as the number of new cases in the province continues to climb each day.
“It's further encouragement to really follow public health's recommendations,” Tellier said. “Because, as you know, right now in Quebec we are not doing so well.”
`You have to be wary of mutants that would have some worrisome or dangerous properties.