[ad_1]
Another strain of the coronavirus has arrived in north Texas, with Dallas County officials reporting detecting multiple cases of the mu variant.
Health experts say it still accounts for less than half of 1% of all cases in the state. Yet they are watching him closely.
“This is a variant of interest as designated by the World Health Organization,” said executive vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. James McDeavitt.
It means he’s on the radar. Still, it didn’t become a worrisome variant like the delta variant, which still accounts for 99.9% of cases in Texas.
“It doesn’t appear to compete with the delta variant and doesn’t appear to be a major concern at this point,” he said.
But while it’s not necessarily more contagious or deadly, health officials have said the presence of the mu variant is evidence the virus continues to change.
To understand why this matters, Dr McDeavitt says to think of the virus, or at least the protein it produces, as a lock and the body’s antibody response as the key. As the virus mutates, it changes shape and the immune response, along with current COVID vaccines and treatments, may become less likely to adapt, or in other words, less likely to fight off the virus. virus.
McDeavitt said this is what doctors hope to avoid, although some mutation is inevitable as the virus continues to spread around the world.
“We’ve been fortunate so far that none of the variants have been these high consequence variants. But the longer this lasts, the more likely we’ll see one of those that just talks about the importance of get everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible so that it fades into the background, ”McDeavitt said.
In addition to vaccines, he said current precautions such as masking and social distancing remain the best tools to tackle all known variants.
[ad_2]
Source link