Coronavirus: a variant identified in South Africa with a large number of mutations | What is its epidemiological impact

Nail new variant coronavirus disease with a “large number of mutations” was recently reported in South Africa. However, according to virologist and researcher Humberto Debat, so far “You don’t see distinctive epidemiological behavior” that is causing concern.

This new variant, the second to emerge in the country (the first was the Beta, registered for the first time in May 2020), “presents a large number of mutations: only in protein Peak has more than 12 and in total he has about 59 mutations with regard to the Wuhan, “Detailed debate.

“This is one of the most different versions of the virus from the reference one. But the good news is that distinctive epidemiological behavior is not observed,” said the member of the Argentinian inter-institutional SARS-CoV genomics project. -2 (PAIS) in dialogue with Telam.

Despite the number of mutations, says the virologist, “It does not extend geographically or chronologically. ” To date, only 101 samples with this variant have been reported worldwide, “which is very few,” he noted.

“This means that at the moment this is a variant that we are looking into due to the number of mutations it has but is not behaving sufficiently to be classified as of interest or concern today“he insisted.

Mutations of the new South African variant

Regarding the impact that this new variant could have, Debat indicated that Yes OK A lot of mutation it shows “Are associated with greater infectivity and immune evasion (such as E484K and N501Y shared with Beta and Gamma), epidemiologically until today, there is no data that points in this direction“.

Due to the number of mutations it presents, “it is likely that it results from progression of the virus in an immunocompromised person», Noted the specialist.

“This happens because in these patients the virus can last for months and replicate a lot; the patient may have been hospitalized even with treatment and the virus has spread to health workers and from there has reached the community, ”he said. added.

This dynamic, which has to do with its origin, “is different from the behavior it has once it is already circulating in the community; and what you see is that it behaves like all the other variants, it does not evolve faster», He clarified.

As a sample which the alarm is not yet lit, Debat recalled that “In South Africa, where the Beta variant dominated, it was replaced by Delta, which is now the predominant variant.”

Variants of interest

Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) identifies as variants of interest (VOI) wing And (from Nigeria), Lota (from California), Kappa (another from India) and the Lambda (known as the Andean variant, first identified in Peru and with a significant presence in Latin America).

OVIs are those which exhibit changes in the genome which, as has been shown or predicted, affect characteristics of the virus such as its transmissibility, the severity of the disease it causes, and its ability to evade the action of the virus. immune system, being detected by means of diagnosis or being attacked by drugs.

Also those in which “it has been proven that they give rise to significant transmission in extra-hospital settings or cause several conglomerates of covid-19 in different countries, with an increasing relative prevalence and causing an increasing number of cases over time. time, or which appear to have other characteristics indicating that they may present a new risk to global public health. “

Worrisome variants

On the other hand, WHO also distinguishes variants of concern (VOCs). There he understands the Delta (first identified in India and causing new waves in many countries around the world), the Alpha (first identified in the UK), the Beta (the first ‘new variant’ from South Africa, emerging in May 2020) and the Gamma (from Manaus).

VOCs are the variants for which there is evidence that they generate an increase in transmissibility or a detrimental change in the epidemiology of covid-19; an increase in virulence or a change in the clinical presentation of the disease; and / or a decrease in the effectiveness of the social measures of the diagnostics, vaccines and treatments available.