JawaPos.com – Covid-19 is getting more and more variants or mutating. From the start of the D614G mutation, the B117 variant, until now the P1 variant from Brazil has emerged. An Internal Medicine Specialist who is also Chair of the Covid-19 Task Force for the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Professor Zubairi Djoerban said the P1 mutant from Brazil is more easily transmitted too. And it could also allow an infected person to be immediately infected again by this Brazilian mutant P1.
“One of the interesting vaccines is that AstraZeneca has scientific evidence that it can protect the new mutant from Brazil, namely P1,” he told JawaPos.com, Monday (15/3).
In the page The Guardian two variants of the coronavirus have been detected in Brazil, or in people who have traveled from Brazil, called P1 and P2. They are similar but it is P1 that is causing concern in the UK. The hunt continues by the UK’s National Center for Health (NHS).
P1 was first detected in Japan, in people traveling from Manaus in Brazil. Investigations confirmed the variant in Manaus, a city on the Amazon river that suffered from the first wave of the coronavirus that peaked in April. A blood donor survey in October showed that 76 percent of the population had antibodies, so they were considered immune temporarily.
However, in January, there was massive reinfection or reinfection among people who had previously recovered from Covid-19. P2 is widespread in Brazil and has fewer worrisome mutations.
The UK’s New and Developing Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) has identified P1 as a worrying variant. Nervtag says P1 contains 17 unique amino acid changes, three deletions, four synonymous mutations and one 4nt insertion. All variants have a number of mutations. The main concern is that the P1 has three things to cause concern namely the K417T, E484K and N501Y.
The E484K is the most worrying one. It is also called the South African variant, which has nearly identical changes in its spike protein, and is the reason the UK is rigorously testing spikes wherever it is detected. There have also been cases where the Kent variant, known for its rapid spread, has had the E484K mutation. This is a mutation thought to give the variant the ability to become resistant to vaccines. And, it is feared to reduce the efficacy of the vaccine.
Watch the interesting video below:
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Editor: Edy Pramana
Reporter: Marieska Harya Virdhani
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