South African researchers express concern about the spread of a new virus Coronavirus disease Variants are full of many mutations, some of which are related to increased infectivity and resistance to antibodies to the disease.
This variant named C.1.2 was first discovered in May and has spread to most provinces of South Africa and seven other countries, including China, Portugal, and the United Kingdom
in a Recent studies A report published by researchers from the South African Genomics Surveillance Network stated that the variant was described as “worrying” because of the number of mutations it possessed. The research is yet to be peer reviewed.
A sort of Press Releases Researchers from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in South Africa pointed out that the C.1.2 lineage has mutations found in other COVID-19 variants of interest or concern, but “there are other new mutations.”
“Although the C.1.2 lineage has some mutations in common with the Beta and Delta variants, the new lineage has many additional mutations,” the press release reads.
“Based on our understanding of this variant mutation, we suspect that it may be able to partially evade the immune response, but despite this, the vaccine will still provide a high level of protection against hospitalization and death.”
Although scientists have observed such mutations in this variant, they have not yet concluded whether it is actually more contagious or whether it can overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or previous infections.
South Africa was the first country to detect a variant of Beta COVID-19, one of four variants of concern marked by the World Health Organization.
According to the World Health Organization, Beta-related features include increased infectivity, increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus infection, and evidence of antibody neutralization.
Dr. Gerald Evans, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said that it’s too early to judge whether C.1.2 will pose a threat like Delta-this is a highly spreadable variant that has promoted a new wave. A pandemic in several countries in the world including Canada.
“The truth is that this is all [preliminary] There is a lot of speculation about what these mutations mean,” Evans said.
“I think the most impressive thing is that, you know, it has been described in some places and it cannot compete with Delta.”
As of July, genome sequencing data from South Africa showed that the spread of C.1.2 was far less than the spread of the dominant Delta. That month, C.1.2 accounted for 3% of COVID-19 test samples, while Delta accounted for 89% in South Africa.
So far, this variant has not been able to compete with other major variants of COVID-19 in the country/region to which it has spread.
Richard Lessels, one of the authors of the South African report on C.1.2, told Reuters that the emergence of the variant told them that “the pandemic is far from over and this virus is still exploring ways to better infect us.”
Although he specifically pointed out that C.1.2 has more immune evasion properties than Delta, he said that people should not be overly alarmed by its discovery, because more mutant variants will definitely appear in the later stages of the pandemic.
Since then, the findings of the South African team have been submitted to the World Health Organization (WHO).
On Monday, the WHO’s COVID-19 technical leader talked about C.1.2 research and news in several statements online.
In a post to Twitter, Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization pointed out that since South Africa first reported it in May, only about 100 variant sequences have been discovered.
“At this time, C.1.2 does not seem to [upwards] In circulation, but we need to perform and share more sorts on a global scale,” Van Kerkhove wrote.
She pointed out that Delta is still a more advantageous variant based on available sequences.
Evans said that unless he sees in the next few months more convincing data from South Africa or anywhere else the variant has spread to, he will be skeptical of C.1.2 concerns.
“I think when it comes to C.1.2, there is a lot of speculation saying,’Wow, you know some of these mutations we haven’t seen a lot, maybe they will represent immune escape or something,’ but this has not been confirmed,” He said.
“I think Delta will win the competition and it may die. This is my guess,” Evans said.
— Document from Reuters
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