Coronavirus: discover a new variant in Niger …

The African Center of Excellence for Infectious Disease Genomics (Acegid) reported that scientists discovered in Nigeria a new variant of coronavirus, different from those recently detected in South Africa and the United Kingdom, although he shares “some mutations”.

Following this announcement, the African Center for Disease Control (CDC) – the African Union’s health agency – organized a emergency meeting to analyze the new health scenario facing the continent.

However, Christian Happi, professor and molecular biologist who participated in the genetic sequencing of this new variant, called for caution against this discovery and not to jump to hasty conclusions.

Early December, Acegid analyzed 200 samples of the virus and two of them, taken from patients on August 3 and October 9, show genetic mutations.

“We have no idea or certainty whether this variant is directly related to the increase in cases Nigeria is currently experiencing.”Happi warns.

So far, Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country with around 200 million people – has recorded 82,000 cases and 1,246 deaths, although the percentage of tests performed is still very low.

Thanks to the genetic sequencing of the virus, a very refined screening operation that only 12 laboratories on the African continent can perform, Professor Happi and his team were able to describe the evolution of the mutation.

“We don’t know where this new variant came from. We think it’s independent, that it’s produced in Nigeria. I don’t think it’s imported.”said the biologist and former Harvard professor, specializing in infectious diseases.

Also, Happi recalled that “viruses mutate and change” naturally. “The important thing is not the mutation, but the transformation of the spike protein”, the part of the virus that allows access to the body’s cells, and that would make this mutation infectious, he explained.

Although Acegid and the Nigerian Center for Infectious Diseases (NCDC) are working together to explain whether the recent increase in coronavirus cases in the country is due to this new strain, there has been no increase in the rate of mortality.

“I ask people not to extrapolate. There is a tendency to extrapolate with these new variants of the virus,” said the professor. There is no evidence, for example, that the strain found in England would have the same effects in Nigeria (and vice versa)“.

Happi recalled that “if there is anything Covid-19 taught us, it is that in everything we thought we knew about this virus, we were wrong.”

“Some have predicted that a third of the African population will die, but we cannot apply the research and figures gathered in Europe and the United States and apply them here: we are genetically different, our immune health is different,” he insisted.

For his part, the director of the African Union CDC, John Nkengasong, asked “time” while investigating the rate of spread of the new novel in Nigeria, during a videoconference.

At present, 2.4 million cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Africa, or 3.6% of the world total (according to an AFP tally) and the total of deaths stands at 57,000.