The rapid expansion of three variants of SARS-CoV-2 has once again set off alarms in the international community due to fears that they could complicate the management of the pandemic, which has already left more than 100 million infections and 2.2 million deaths in the world.
Is about the variants detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil and are characterized, according to the first studies, by a greater ease of transmission compared to that of Wuhan. In fact, the British one has already been reported in more than 70 countries, including Spain, while the South African is present in 30 territories and the Brazilian in nine.
Although their effects are still being investigated, these variants may not be deadlier than the original, and vaccines may be just as effective in them. The European Union, however, has decided not to lower its guard and has urged member states to extract the genome of 5% of cases detected weekly to locate new possible variants and act quickly against those that are considered most dangerous.
Variant, lineage or strain ?: how are they different
The COVID-19 pandemic has left a large number of new words in our vocabulary, being mutation, variant, lineage or strain, some of the ones that have been mentioned the most in recent weeks. Although, sometimes, they are being used interchangeably, they do not mean the same thing.
When you talk about mutations, refers to the changes that occur at the genetic level of viruses, originated when they replicate both within one patient and when they pass to another. “The virus is constantly mutating, even from the moment it is inside an individual,” José Antonio López, professor and director of the Neurovirology group at the Autonomous University of Madrid, explains to RTVE.es.
The variantsInstead, they refer to the grouping of these mutations and these, in turn, are classified into lineages or branches. So far they have been located thousands of variants from the start although most are generally expected to have no impact. Sometimes some randomly develop an advantage, which makes them outperform the others. This is the case of the British, South African and Brazilian variants, commonly named for the place where they were located, and which point to greater transmissibility.
Said characteristic is related to the N501Y mutation, It modifies the S protein of the virus, making it easier for it to infect cells. In the case of the variant detected in South Africa and Brazil, they also present the E484K mutation, that is, a combination that allows them to escape the neutralization of some monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, although this is still being investigated.
The concept of strainFor their part, according to López, there are different groups of variants that are consolidated and “offer a different biological characteristic” to the virus. However, still no strains detected derived from SARS-CoV-2.
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The British variant: more than 150 cases in Spain
The variant VOC 202012/01, belonging to the B.1.1.7 lineage, was first identified in the British county of Kent on September 20. It would not be, however, until December 14 when The United Kingdom sounded the alarm when it detected an increase in the incidence of the virus in the east and southeast of England and the London metropolitan area associated with this new variant.
At that time, the British government assured that this mutated version of the virus would have a greater transmission capacity, triggering the ban on flying to British territory by several countries as a preventive measure. On January 22, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson estimated the variant between 30% and 70% more contagious and announced that there was “evidence” that it could also be associated “with a higher level of mortality.” LThe World Health Organization (WHO), on the other hand, believes that this is due to the overload of the health system due to the increase in cases and not to the mutations of the virus.
According to data from the English Public Health Service, cases with the variant would have increased from 46% in the first week of December 2020 to 76.6% between January 5 and 11, 2021. In addition, more than 70 countries have reported some almost related to this variant in their territory. In Europe, up to 17 countries, including Spain, have reported almost 500 cases, of particular concern to Denmark -which accumulates more than a hundred-, the Netherlands and Ireland.
In Spain, the autonomous communities have reported 157 cases, most of them in Andalusia (37) and the Community of Madrid (28). Most of them are associated with travelers from the United Kingdom, according to a report from the Ministry of Health on January 18.
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The South African variant: present in more than 30 countries
South Africa announced on December 18, 2020 the detection of a a new variant called 501Y.V2 (B.1.351). Although it is still under study, the first indications suggest that it could spread 50% faster and that natural antibodies could be less effective against this variant. However, its symptoms are not necessarily more severe.
On January 27 the variant it had already been detected in 31 countries, eight more in just one week, according to WHO. About 500 cases were in South Africa, but infections had also been reported in the UK, Botswana, Australia and Germany. Greece joined this list this Sunday, after locating its first case related to the variant. In Spain, at the moment, no infections related to 501Y.V2 have been detected.
South Africa is, for the moment, the country with the most coronavirus infections on the African continent, by exceeding 1.4 million cases and 43,000 deaths. Its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has tightened the restrictions – which include a night curfew between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. – given the distrust produced by this new variant.
The increase in cases related to this version of the virus also caused the ban on flights to the nation African by several countries such as the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil or Vietnam, among others.
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The Brazilian variant, detected in Japan
At the beginning of January 2021, Japan has also identified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in four people from the Brazilian Amazon. The new variant, P.1. (B.1.1.28.1) It presents, like the British and South African, a mutation related to greater transmissibility, but it is under investigation if it could lead to higher mortality and affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Brazil has also reported the presence of this new variant in the Manaus region (in the Amazon), collected in the second half of December 2020, so the transmission direction is assumed to have been from Brazil to Japan. So far there is no knowledge of the circulation of this variant in Spain.
The South American country is the third nation in the world with the most cases and the second with the most deaths; so much so that it has occasionally surpassed the US in the number of deaths per day and is the third on the planet to exceed eight million cases. Its president, Jair Bolsonaro, who tested positive for coronavirus, has chosen to minimize the effects of the pandemic, against the criteria of his collaborators, some of whom have resigned. Vaccination has already begun in Brazil, however, this new variant, pending new results, could pose a new challenge for the leader’s management.
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