Scientists on alert for the discovery of a new variant of Covid-19 in Africa

While most new Covid-19 infections in South Africa are currently caused by Delta -identified for the first time in India-, a new variant attracted attention from the scientific world, because mutates almost twice faster and it could be more contagious and resistant to antibodies than the other variants already observed.

The variant, known as C.1.2 It was found in May in the South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Gauteng, where Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria are located by the Kwazulu Natal Research, Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp) and South African scientists they “watch” her, because her rare mutation frequency has gradually increased in recent months, as reported by National Institute of Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD).

In an article published in medRxiv.org, a server that hosts medical studies before they are published in peer-reviewed medical journals, scientists explained that the new variant has a mutation rate of approximately 41.8 per year, almost double that expressed by other variants.

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“More worrying is the accumulation of additional mutations … which may also affect the susceptibility to neutralization or furin cleavage and, therefore, the capacity for replication,” the article warned, referring to the ability of the virus. to escape the antibodies.

South Africa is the most affected country on its continent, with 2.7 million cases recorded to date, of which 81,830 have died. C.1.2 se first detected in South Africa in May 2021 and since then it has appeared in every South African province and country around the world, including China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, UK, Portugal and Switzerland.

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C.1.2. has a great ability to escape antibodies

The scientists they assure that C.1.2 is not “present but at low levels” in the new cases detected and that it is too early to determine its evolution. For this reason, again he can not to be classified What “Variant of interest” or “variant disturbing”, As are Delta (the one that emerged in India) and Beta (which appeared in South Africa in 2020), both of which are highly contagious.

The World Health Organization (WHO) first classifies mutations as variants of concern and, once identified as more serious or contagious, they are referred to as variants of concern.

In the same study, it is stated that C.1.2 was developed from C.1, one of the strains who dominated the first wave of SARS-Cov-2 infections in South Africa, and which was last detected in the country in January 2021. Now scientists fear that this particular strain of the variant may be more widespread than previously believed, based on a steady increase in the number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa on a monthly basis. base, similar to the increases seen during the expansion of Beta and Delta.

Speaking to South African Magazine New frame, Anban Pillay, deputy director general of the Ministry of Health, said that medical professionals believe that the Delta variant “will not be the last” and that “New variants are intended to develop as a natural evolution of the virus. ” In addition, he confirmed that scientists are “analyzing the effectiveness of vaccines in vitro” against C1.2.

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