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COVID-19 lessons from Asia | New frontiers on African genetics

Posted by: The Conversation Global

Date: Monday, 23 November 2020

 

Large swaths of Europe and North America are in lockdown once more as the second wave of coronavirus continues to take hold and we confront the prospect of a long and difficult winter. But we have more weapons in our arsenal today to fight this virus than we did in spring. And there are many lessons to be learned from East Asian countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea, which brought their outbreaks under control using mass testing and sophisticated contact tracing.

All humans are descendants from a common pool of ancestors who originated in Africa. Yet very few people from the continent have been included in studies looking at genetic variation. More than three quarters of the participants in genomics research have European ancestry. Studying African genomes not only fills a gap in the current understanding of human genetic variation, but also reveals new insights into the history of African populations. Zané Lombard unpacks the ground breaking findings of a new study.

Megan Clement

Commissioning Editor, COVID-19

Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA

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GettyImages.

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It is essential to add genomic data from all global populations - including Africa. This will ensure that everyone can benefit from the advances in health.

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