The Andean variant of the coronavirus has already been detected in samples from 19 countries: is this worrying?

So far, the World Health Organization considers that there are four variants of the coronavirus of concern for its greater ability to be transmitted and to reach more people around the world. But in South America, the presence of another variant has increased especially in the last two months, which has the technical name “C.37” but is popularly known as the “Andean variant”.. It has already been detected in samples from COVID-19 patients from 19 countries, including Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Spain, Germany and the United States. Could this be another variant to worry about?

A few days ago, the Minister of Health of Peru, Oscar Ugarte, He said the C.37 variant is already present in 80% of the samples analyzed, and suggested that “it could be responsible for the peak of the second wave of COVID-19” in this country. In telephone dialogue with Infobae, one of the researchers who postulated C.37 as a variant, Pablo Tsukayama, from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, recounted the details of the police follow-up they are carrying out. Already last March, the “Andean variant” was found in more than 40% of patient samples in Lima.

“It is possible that this variant appeared in South America, due to the frequency it already has, unlike other regions of the world”, underlined Dr Tsukayama, specialist in microbial genomics. It has already been detected in the United States, but it is present in 1% of patient samples studied in that country.

It has been called the “Andean variant” because its detection was first reported in Chile and Peru., but there was a recording from the ANLIS / Malbrán Institute in Argentina from November 8 last year that mentioned C.37. At the time, it was considered “B.1.1.1”. The second variant report was made from Peru on December 22. It was the Tsukayama group who proposed it as a new variant.

Tsukayama clarified that he did not want to call it the ‘Andean variant’ because ‘it implies assuming that the evolution of variants is the responsibility of a country or a city, and fuels unnecessary nationalisms in response. to a global challenge such as the pandemic. ” But he argued that the frequent presence of the C.37 variant deserved more attention.

“Due to the lack of budget and logistics, most of the samples sequenced in Peru come from Lima. They say we will increase the ability to study 10 times. It would be necessary to follow more because there could be an under-registration not only in Peru but in other countries of the region “. In South America, only a 0.1% sequence of samples from patients with confirmed cases is sequenced globally.

“The Andean variant is a line which circulates strongly in Chile, Peru and Argentina”, Warned Dr Mariana Viegas, of the Ricardo Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires and coordinator of the Country Project, which deals with genomic surveillance of the coronavirus and reports to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. “It is already well documented that the variant co-circulates with the Manaus variant in the city of Buenos Aires and Conurbano. Sometimes it travels in tandem. In others, even in a proportion greater than that of the Manaus variant. We follow him closely“, Viegas commented on the question of Infobae.

Although the Andean variant is still not classified in the category of “special concern” or in the category of “interest” by the WHO, “He has a mutation, 452Q, which caught our attention when we started to detect him last February,” admitted Dr Viegas.

In addition, another of the scientists belonging to Proyecto País, the biologist Humberto Dibat, highlighted Infobae What the emergence of the “Andean variant” coincided with the development of large outbreaks in Peru. Debat, who is a professor at the Faculty of Exact Physical and Natural Sciences of the National University of Cordoba and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), “the Andean variant is already present in 27% of patient samples in Chile , and in 48% of AMBA samples in Argentina. In other Argentine provinces, it is also growing ”.

The mere fact that this variant has displaced others and is detected so frequently today – stressed Dr Debat – “is enough to be considered a concern whether or not an international body classifies it as such. . “

At the same time, Pilar Moreno, doctor in biological sciences and teacher and researcher at the University of the Republic and at the Pasteur Institute in Montevideo, Uruguay, spoke about the situation of the Andean variant in this country. “Between the 200 and 300 samples that we sequence each week, we detected the C.37 variant in three patients in Uruguay, who had not been abroad”, specified Infobae. “Today the predominant variant is P.1,” he said, referring to the variant that was detected in Manaus, Brazil, last year.

Dr Moreno agreed with colleagues in the region that the Andean variant may be more transmissible and have the ability to escape neutralizing antibodies generated by previous infections. The latter could cause more people already with the coronavirus to be infected again. “But we still have to prove it scientifically,” said Moreno.

In Chile, the latest variant report from the Department of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health noted that it is the “Andean” is the variant that has been circulating the most in this country after Manaus since April. “This situation requires to be attentive to the evolutions of the epidemiological characterization of these cases, as well as to maintain the sending of samples in all the regions to follow the characteristics of the predominant lines and variants “local experts wrote in the report.

Globally, researchers are uploading data on genomes sequenced from patient samples into a large database that was created to monitor the influenza virus: GISAID. Today, the vast majority of data comes from scientists residing in developed countries. South America generated only 20,000 genomes (1.2% of the total in GISAID). Although efforts have been made to invest in equipment and supplies, “with so little vigilance, our ability to detect variants is very limited,” said Tsukayama from Peru.

Faced with the risk of contagion from emerging variants, what can the population do? “It is impossible to predict the impact of the variants in a pandemic. For the moment, all authorized vaccines offer protection against the coronavirus – replied Doctor Debat from Cordoba -. In addition to accessing the vaccine, Today, people should follow recommendations such as proper chinstrap use, permanent ventilation of indoor environments, frequent hand washing, distancing and avoiding social gatherings with non-partners in venues. closed. These are measures that serve to prevent contagion even if the prevalence of one variant over others changes ”.

In Peru, Dr Lely Solari of the Ministry of Health told the press on Tuesday that applied vaccines continue to provide protection. There has been a decrease in cases and deaths from COVID-19 in groups of people who already had access to vaccines. “This means that despite the fact that the C37 variant has circulated in our country,” he said, “the vaccines are effective in preventing cases.”

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