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International virologists have warned against people becoming seriously ill for a second time after being infected with a mutated corona variant. It concerns the South American and the South African variant, the latter of which has also surfaced with us. That writes De Morgen.
It was previously known that people could become infected with the corona virus for the second time. However, such cases are exceptional and, moreover, the recontamination is usually less serious. Not so with the South American and South African variant, virologists conclude. In the hard-hit Brazilian city of Manaus and in South Africa, up to half of previously infected people contract the virus again, a reinfection that is at least as bad as the first.
“I am very concerned,” says Dutch virologist Chantal Reusken in De Morgen. “For the South African variant, but also for the South American variant, which has the same signature.” The two variants, unlike the British variant, have undergone the same three chemical changes at the virus’s main site of attachment.<!– –>
Antibodies lose efficacy
An American study of previously infected South Africans showed that in some cases the antibodies in the blood simply no longer had an effect on the mutated variant. At 40 percent it was about a reduced immune system. That would also explain why the virus is once again so strong in the city of Manaus, located in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon forest. After all, three quarters of the population has already been infected there.
Are the vaccines still working?
What about the vaccines? For the time being, there are no indications that the vaccines work less well with the variants. Because a vaccine usually targets different places of the virus, a mutation in one place is usually not a problem. But according to vaccineologist Philip Krause of the WHO working group on corona vaccination, you should be careful. “The rapid evolution of these variants suggests that if it is possible for the virus to morph into a vaccine-resistant form, it may be happening faster than we would like,” he said. Science.
The flu virus also changes shape a bit every season, which means that the flu shot sometimes has to be adjusted. The same could happen with the corona vaccines, but that is a relatively fast process. The Dutch virologist Eric Snijder does think that the choice of vaccines that target the so-called spike protein of the virus could be questioned. It may just be that ‘old-fashioned’ vaccines, in which dead, harmless virus particles are injected into the body, still provide better protection, De Morgen says.
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