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COLUMBUS, Ohio – A small number of coronavirus cases involving the mu variant, which preliminary research found to be resistant to vaccine antibodies, have been identified in Ohio, health officials said Thursday.
Genetic sequencing has localized the variant in 0.09% of cases from July 1 to present.
Mu, the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet, is also called B.1.621. It was first identified in Colombia in January. Currently, at least 39 countries have found it, including most states in the United States.
On August 30, the World Health Organization added mu to its list of variants of interest, which currently has five strains.
“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential immune evasion properties,” the WHO said in a weekly COVID-19 epidemiological update.
However, this is based on preliminary data and “this needs to be confirmed by further studies,” the update says.
Doctors in Ohio said they were monitoring mu, but were more concerned about the delta variant.
“I think the important thing to remember right now is that the delta variant is here and now,” said Dr. Nora Colburn, infectious disease specialist at Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University. “That’s over 99% of the variants in the United States. This is what puts all of our patients in the hospital and what can be avoided with vaccination. “
Dr. Joseph Gastaldo, medical director of infectious diseases at OhioHealth, said that “we are probably going to go through the entire Greek alphabet” with mutations, which occur because there are more infections, especially in people. unvaccinated.
“We have to be very careful when we hear the headlines in the news about test tube studies looking at levels of neutralizing antibodies,” he said. “The immune response after your vaccination is more important than the level of antibodies induced.”
For example, there is cell-mediated immunity, an immune response that doesn’t involve antibodies, he said.
People should start to worry when higher percentages of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have been vaccinated. This is not happening. As of January 1, only 2.5% of hospitalizations for coronavirus have been in unvaccinated people, according to state data.
“In reality, I don’t see this happening,” he said.
There is no sign that the mu variant is going to take over, he said.
“It’s all about the delta now, and having such a high transmissible variant in the delta variant is kind of keeping the mu variant under control,” he said.
Scientists in the lab identify variants using genomic sequencing. But not all positive tests can be sequenced. They must be positive PCR tests and they must have enough genetic material from the original test for the analysis to be performed, said Ohio Department of Health director Dr Bruce Vanderhoff.
It also explains why the Ohio Department of Health and other labs can’t tell individuals if they have a variant, he said.
The data is about three to four weeks behind schedule, he said.
In addition to mu, the lambda variant – which was first identified in Peru and is called C.37 – has been identified in Ohio. It represents 0.01% of all samples sequenced since July 1.
Lambda, which is highly contagious, was placed on the WHO’s list of variants of interest in June.
Because the Delta variant has such a strong foothold in the state, mu and lambda haven’t made much headway among cases, Vanderhoff said.
“We’ve seen it with other variants, even with some worrying variants, back with alpha,” and predominant strains in South Africa and Brazil, he said. “There seems to be this pattern of very aggressive and highly transmissible variants crowding out the other variants of the board.”
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