Brazilian doctors have discovered a new dangerous variant of the coronavirus in the southern part of the country, which is similar to the Lambda variant, spreading in Peru and other South American countries since the end of last summer, TASS reported.
The sequenced genome of the virus and the findings of scientists working under the direction of Priscilla Wink of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre have been published in an article in the medRxiv electronic library.
“In mid-June this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified the Lambda variant as interesting to study. For the first time, we were able to find traces of its penetration into Brazil from Argentina and a new strain of this version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. , the spread of which may exacerbate the epidemiological situation in the country “, the authors of the study write.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus lambda variant was first isolated in Peru in the late summer of 2020. Until the advent of the Indian variants of the new coronavirus, this variant was the cause of most infections in Peru and about a third of new cases. of Covid-19 in Argentina and Chile. There are a number of eight key mutations in its genome that are thought to be likely to increase the spread of the virus.
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