They warn that the Lambda variant of the coronavirus, detected in South America, could be of global “concern”

The Lambda variant of the coronavirus, which was previously called “Andean” since its detection in Peru last summer, could become of “global concern”, Brazilian scientists say in a new study. Lambda is already present in 30 countries, and had been classified by the World Health Organization on June 15 as “of interest” due to the increase in its frequency in cases of patients with COVID-19 since February latest. But a study conducted in Porto Alegre, Brazil, warned that the Lambda variant has the potential to be a worrying variant.

Consulted by Infobae, Pablo Tsukayama, a microbial genomics researcher at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, who was part of the team that detected the Lamba variant in Peru, commented on the study conducted by Brazilian colleagues. “If the Lambda variant is formally shown to be more transmissible, it should be considered of concern. In several countries, the Lambda variant competes with Gamma, which is already seen as a variant of concern. They both behave similarly, ”Dr Tsukayama said., which did not participate in the Brazilian work.

Gamma is the P.1 variant which was identified on January 11 in Brazil. He had emerged in the city of Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas. It has also been detected in Japan in some travelers who have stayed in this region of northern Brazil. Last week, news of another variant of the coronavirus also spread to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which they call P.5, although official publication of case reports is still lacking.

Since the start of the pandemic, the appearance of variants of the coronavirus has been expected since it is a natural mechanism that intervenes in the evolution of viruses. They change as they spread. Some variants are “advantageous” and They can make the virus more transmissible and develop more severe cases or reduce the protection offered by vaccines or escape the defenses that the human body develops after contracting the infection. There are also variations that have no impact on the pandemic. But delays in vaccination have been a key factor in creating more opportunities for more variants with higher public health risk to emerge and have an impact.

Since April, the world has been paying more attention to the Delta variant, which was originally detected in India, but is now hitting Europe more, and forced to delay measures to release various restrictions. Meanwhile, in South America, the Lambda variant was increasingly recorded in patient samples, even with the limitations to perform genomic studies in the region.

In Brazil, the Lambda variant was detected last February in São Paulo. Now, the group of researchers led by Priscila Lamb Wink, from the Bacterial Resistance Research Laboratory, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, has found and analyzed a sample from a person who had been in Argentina and had to be hospitalized. They discovered that he had been infected with the Lambda variant, whose technical name is “C.37”.

Wink and his colleagues described the first case of C.37 infection in southern Brazil. The researchers found eight variant-defining mutations, in addition to the 19 mutations already described for other members of this lineage. “Considering that this VOI has been associated with high rates of transmissibility, the possible spread in the southern Brazilian community is of concern,” they write in a study that has yet to be reviewed by pairs.

WHO has a system for classifying variants of the coronavirus which are classified into variants and variants of concern. So far, after scientists from the Country Project, Argentina’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation indicated that Lambda should receive more attention, it was ranked on June 14 as a variant of interest, a category which means that it should be further investigated in each country, but that there is still a lack of data to further specify its impact on health.

It is considered to be of concern when a variant has been shown to involve increased transmissibility or a deleterious change in the epidemiology of COVID-19; increased virulence or change in the clinical presentation of the disease; or it leads to a reduction in the effectiveness of social and public health measures or of available diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments.

The Brazilian team of researchers commented that the high prevalence of the Lambda variant has already been described in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, where it is associated with substantial rates of community transmission. “The plight of the health care system and the recent report of increasing deaths in these countries is believed to be associated with the increased prevalence of the Lambda variant,” wrote Wink and colleagues. “We believe Lambda has the potential to become a variant of concern,” they said.

Lambda is now considered interesting because there have been reports of its higher frequency in samples from COVID-19 patients in countries in South America, such as Argentina, Chile and Peru. . But it has also been detected in 29 countries. This means that this variant of the coronavirus has already managed to spread to different parts of the world.

Authorities in Peru have reported that 81% of COVID-19 cases sequenced since April 2021 were associated with Lambda. Argentina has reported an increase in the prevalence of Lambda since the third week of February 2021, and between April 2 and May 19, 2021, the variant accounted for 37% of sequenced COVID-19 cases. But in AMBA, the Lambda variant was found in over 60% of the samples sequenced.

In Chile, the prevalence of Lambda has increased over time, accounting for 32% of sequenced cases reported in the past 60 days. According to Argentinian scientist Carolina Torres, of Conicet and UBA, “there are some indications of epidemiological data which would indicate that Lambda is more transmissible, but these are not yet conclusive data”.

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