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Covid, what is the South African variant and why it worries virologists

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Covid, what is the South African variant and why it worries virologists

South African variant: what it is, how it emerged and where it was identified. This is why it is considered by experts to be "one of the worst seen so far".

Thirty-two mutations of the Spike protein, double that of the Delta variant and triple that of Alpha. The South African variant had already been monitored for several days by the World Health Organization (WHO) which today meets at 12 in Geneva to discuss the countermeasures and name it with a Greek letter (most likely Nu), as for the other variants.

The Organization will also decide whether to classify it as a variant of "interest" or "concern".

HOW IT HAPPENED

South Africa has a vaccination rate that reaches just 24% of the total population and, writes Agi , it is hypothesized that the many mutations have accumulated in an immunosuppressed infected person who has struggled with the coronavirus for weeks or months.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SOUTH AFRICA

After months of relative tranquility, in the last three weeks the country has seen the rate of positivity increase dramatically, going from less than 1% to 30%, according to Repubblica . The number of infections has soared exponentially, with a tenfold increase in cases since the beginning of the month: last Wednesday the number of infections reached 1,200 in 24 hours, compared to 106 at the beginning of the month.

South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said at a press conference that the variant is of "serious concern" and potentially "a serious threat".

Prior to the detection of the new variant, authorities predicted that a fourth wave would hit the country starting in mid-December, due to travel ahead of the holiday season.

THE MUTATIONS

Experts, who have detected 32 mutations on the spike protein – that is, the crown tip of the coronavirus, as well as the protein it uses to hook our cells and get inside them – believe that this is a very large number, achieved moreover. in a very short time.

This was also confirmed by Alessandro Carabelli , an Italian researcher, director of one of the research groups of the English consortium Cog-Uk that monitors the variants: "It is quite worrying – he confirmed to Repubblica – It has 32 mutations on the spike protein, which are a number very large and they accumulated in a very short time ".

The mutations of the South African variant, in fact, are about double that of the Delta variant and three times that of the Alpha.

WHERE IT WAS IDENTIFIED

The South African variant, according to the Guardian , has been identified in Gauteng , a wealthy South African province that includes its largest city Johannesburg and the administrative capital Pretoria.

The South African National Institute of Communicable Diseases has made it known that the presence of the variant has been documented with sequencing in 22 positive cases, mostly young, but many others have already been reported from various laboratories in the country.

In some areas of Gauteng it is now 90% prevalent and this, explained Carabelli, "means that it has supplanted the Delta very quickly".

In total, at least sixty cases have been ascertained worldwide, including 4 in Botswana and 1 in Hong Kong in a traveler returning from South Africa. No cases have been found in Europe for now.

WHY IT CONCERNS VIROLOGISTS

The South African variant, named B.1.1.529, has been defined by experts as “one of the worst seen so far” due to the 32 spike protein mutations identified so far. These, in addition to making the virus more easily transmitted, could evade antibodies and vaccines.

The fear, it must be remembered, for now theoretical because no experiment has yet confirmed it, is precisely that the antibodies of the recovered and vaccinated people struggle to recognize the new strain – and therefore that the protection is lower.

"It has both mutations that make the virus more contagious, and those that could confuse antibodies," Carabelli said. “We know that the spots our antibodies use to recognize the spike are located in 4 regions. B.1.1.529 has mutations in all four of these regions ”.

WHAT THEY SAY IN THE UK

For the UK Health Security Agency, the British Health Security Agency, cited by the BBC , would be the "most dangerous variant that has emerged so far" , so much so that the Minister of Health, Sajid Javid, said that "vaccines could be less effective ".

Thomas Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, wrote in a tweet that he observed "a truly horrible mutation profile".

NO ALARM (AT LEAST FOR THE HOUR)

However, Professor James Naismith , director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, said on a BBC radio program that the new variant is "bad news but it is not doomsday". Although it will "almost certainly" make vaccines less effective, the expert explained that "there are many things we do not know", starting with how real the greater transmissibility is.

STOP ON FLIGHTS

Last night Israel canceled flights to and from South Africa and the UK and Italy also did the same by extending the restriction to Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana – and even Mozambique, as far as our country is concerned.

Many other countries are expected to institute a similar flight halt in the next few hours.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/covid-cose-la-variante-sudafricana-e-perche-preoccupa-i-virologi/ on Fri, 26 Nov 2021 11:10:00 +0000.