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Vietnam Discovers Combined Mutation of British and Indian Corona Corona
Saturday, 29 May 2021 – 16:35:18 WIB
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Metroterkini.com – Vietnam’s Ministry of Health has detected a new variant of the corona virus which has the combined characteristics of the Indian and English variants.
Launching VN Express, Saturday (29/5/2021) Vietnam’s Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the variant was detected after sequencing the genome of a number of Covid-19 patients.
The British variant is believed to be more infectious than the original strain, while the Indian variant is thought to be more infectious and potentially unaffected by immune system antibodies. The variant recently detected in Vietnam has the characteristics of both variants.
Specifically, the variant is an Indian variant with mutational characteristics that originally belonged to the British variant.
“The Ministry of Health will announce this new variant of the coronavirus on the global genome map,” Long said, adding that the new variant had not yet been named.
Since the last month, Vietnam has been hit by a wave of corona virus infections which resulted in 3,595 local Covid-19 cases in 33 cities and provinces. Long said the variant of the coronavirus thought to be responsible for the new wave was much more contagious, especially in the air.
Research in the laboratory revealed that the variant is capable of self-replicating very quickly. This has resulted in the emergence of so many new cases in different locations, and in a shorter time frame.
So far, Vietnam has recorded the presence of seven variants of the coronavirus in the country, including those from the UK, India and South Africa.
Epidemiologist from Griffith University Australia, Dicky Budiman said, hybrid mutations as reported in Vietnam is not impossible.
“It is very possible. That is also called recombination. This recombination event is not new,” said Dicky, quoted from Kompas.com, Saturday (29/5/2021).
Dicky said that recombination of variants of the corona virus is not impossible, especially in areas where infection cases are not controlled, such as the United States, India, Brazil, and Indo-China.
“The potential for recombination of this virus does occur. When in America it was between the UK (UK) variant and the California variant,” said Dicky.
Dicky said, what is called a hybrid mutation is the result of recombination of variants that generally have detrimental properties in humans.
“This hybrid mutation is still being investigated, whether it can really become a super strain or just recombination, but it has failed to infect humans. This is still being researched. Even though there are speculations,” said Dicky.
Dicky said, in simple terms, recombination can be understood as a marriage between various kinds of viral mutations in one event. He said, not all recombinations produce variants that are stronger or detrimental to humans. But the potential for the emergence of a stronger variant is always there.
“This recombination can be an important evolutionary factor. Especially in relation to the development of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dicky.
Dicky said, in an area with poor pandemic control, where community transmission occurs, one person can be infected with more than one variant.
“Well, when it happens, more than one variant and it infects one person, yes this recombination can happen. It’s very possible. It’s very likely to happen,” said Dicky.
Dicky said cases of recombination of such variants of the corona virus had occurred, including in Brazil, the United States, and India. He said he did not rule out the possibility that something similar could happen in Indonesia, which has so far detected transmission of three variants of the corona virus, namely from England, India and South Africa.
“Preventing it is, whatever it is, back to 3T and 5M,” said Dicky. [**]
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