5 things to know about lambda and other covid variants

The delta variant of covid-19 is currently the focus of health officials as it accounts for most of the new cases across the country, but experts also have an eye on the lambda variant that has already swept America. from South.

The lambda variant was first discovered in Peru in December 2020, according to the World Health Organization, which called it a “variant of interest.”

Lambda has been identified in 29 countries, according to the organization, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Spain, Chile and Argentina. , according to Newsweek.

The outlet reported that the lambda variant accounted for around 90% of the covid cases in Peru.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health notes that variants “continue to be identified both in the United States and around the world. Viruses are constantly changing, and viral mutations are common. ”

Pennsylvania has confirmed alpha, beta, delta, and gamma variants among its residents’ cases. The department noted that while current vaccines appear to reduce the severity of the variants, some new mutations are linked to easier person-to-person transmission.

Pittsburgh-based infectious disease expert Dr Amesh Adalja, who is a principal investigator at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security, answered several questions from the Tribune-Review about the lambda variant and the variants in general:

Another variation? How are they born? Do they die on their own?

“The virus has mutated since it first spread to humans, and it has generated many variants. You only hear about the variations you are interested in or worried about, but there are many more variations. This is naturally what viruses do. When they copy, when they infect people, they make millions of copies of their genes. There are going to be mutations and mistakes that will be made and… most of them will have no consequences.

“It’s a normal biological fact when you are dealing with viruses that they will always mutate and generate new variants.

“Once a variant comes out in the world, it competes with all the other variants and the original version of the variant, so some can come and go. They can disappear if they are defeated, just like any other biological species when they are in competition. What we are seeing with the delta variant is that it is very difficult for any other version of the virus to spread because it is so suitable. ”

Is covid-19 going to become like the flu, where we need updated vaccines for new variants?

“The flu virus is from another family. The reason we update vaccines has to do with where the influenza virus mutates and how ineffective our vaccines are. With SARS-CoV-2, even with these most troublesome variants… vaccines still work exactly as expected against serious illness, hospitalization and death.

“For me, that’s the threshold. I think the analogy goes so far with the flu because the flu is a different virus from a different viral family that has different characteristics.

What does another variant mean for the vaccinated population?

“What we’ve seen so far with the variants is that when people vaccinated have breakthrough infections, they are very mild and very unlikely to result in hospitalization or death. I think it’s very difficult for a variant to develop the ability to undo everything a vaccine does, so seeing vaccinated people land in the hospital to a high degree – I think that will be a very high threshold. for a virus to be able to release.

“So I think that while revolutionary infections can occur with variants, they will be mild due to the impact of the vaccine.”

What does another variant mean for the unvaccinated population?

“It depends on where the unvaccinated people live. The lambda variant… does not bother to impose itself in a country which is mainly bathed in the delta variant. But with all of these variations, the risk of the variations is something that is essentially self-inflicted on anyone over the age of 12. Vaccines are the solution to variants.

What does “viral load” mean and why is it important when discussing variants?

“Viral load is the amount of virus present in a person that can be used to predict their infectivity. A person with a high viral load would be more contagious than a person with a low viral load.

“Viral load can be different depending on a lot of things: whether or not a person is vaccinated, how much… virus they have been infected with, where they are at during their illness. Your viral load may be higher just around the time of your symptoms, and then it will decrease as you get through the disease. Some variants have the ability to create more viral load in the host. This delta variant is associated with higher viral loads.