A patient arrives at the Hospital on August 28 in Manaus, State of the Amazon, Brazil, on January 14, 2021, amid the new coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic. Manaus is facing a shortage of oxygen supply and space for beds as the city has been overwhelmed by a second increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
MICHAEL DANTAS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – A new variant of the coronavirus identified in Brazil has exacerbated concern among public health experts and prompted warnings that new additional strains are likely to develop.
News of the variant in Brazil comes after two mutant strains of the virus were discovered in the UK and South Africa earlier this year.
Researchers are urgently studying variants of Covid, which are suspected to share similar characteristics, to better understand the threat they pose.
Viruses mutate naturally and there is no evidence that the newly discovered strains have more severe disease outcomes.
However, Covid variants are believed to be more transmissible than the original that started the pandemic, and this could lead to a greater number of serious infections and additional deaths.
Health authorities have recommended hand washing, physical distancing and the use of personal protective equipment as a means to prevent the spread of the virus.
What is known about the variant found in Brazil?
Earlier this month, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) said it had detected a new Covid variant in four travelers from the Brazilian state of the Amazon on January 2nd.
A forty-year-old man, who was found to be asymptomatic on arrival in Japan, was hospitalized as his respiratory condition worsened. A 30-year-old woman reported neck and headache, a 10- to 19-year-old man had a fever, and a 10-year-old girl was asymptomatic.
This variant of the virus belongs to strain B.1.1.248 and has 12 mutations in the ear protein, the NIID said. Protein proteins are used by the virus to access cells in the body.
Nurses speak in front of the August 28 hospital in Manaus, Amazon State, Brazil, on January 14, 2021, amid the new coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic.
MICHAEL DANTAS | AFP | Getty Images
The NIID said it was difficult to immediately determine the extent to which the new strain is infectious and the effectiveness of vaccines against it.
To date, Brazil has reported more than 8.3 million Covid cases and 207,000 virus deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The South American country is only the second in the United States for Covid-related deaths worldwide.
Travel ban
The United Kingdom on Friday imposed a ban on travelers from South America (and from Portugal and Cape Verde) to prevent people from introducing the new variant into the country.
The country’s Transport Minister, Grant Shapps, told the BBC it was a precautionary measure. He added that scientists think coronavirus vaccines will work in the new variant.
“We examined this particular mutation, unlike many other thousands, very carefully, we saw that there may be a problem, not so much that the vaccine does not work, in fact scientists think it will work, but only the fact is more extensible, “Shapps said, according to Reuters.
On Thursday, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, told ITV that there was a “further risk” with respect to the Covid variant identified in Brazil when it came to vaccine efficacy.
What about mutant strains in the UK and South Africa?
On 14 December, the UK health authorities reported a variant to the WHO identified as SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01. It is unclear how the new strain originated, but preliminary findings have determined it to be highly infectious.
It initially appeared in the south-east of England, but has since become the dominant strain in much of Britain and has spread to over 50 other countries. As a result, many nations imposed bans on travelers from the United Kingdom.
Professional health workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) make their way into a temporary room dedicated to the treatment of potential patients with coronavirus COVID-19 at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria on January 11, 2021 .
Phill Magakoe | AFP | Getty Images
Separately, South African national authorities on December 18 announced the detection of the 501Y.V2 variant. Preliminary studies have shown that the 501Y.V2 variant has also increased transmissibility. It has since been found in at least 20 other countries.
The variants, which originated separately, share a genetic mutation in the ear protein.
What happens next?
Studies are being conducted to understand the transmissibility and severity of recently discovered Covid variants, as well as their potential impact on vaccines.
After approximately ten months of relative inactivity, “we have begun to see an astonishing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 with a repeated evolutionary pattern in SARS-CoV-2 concern variants emerging from the UK, South Africa and Brazil “. Dr. Trevor Bedford, a virologist and associate professor at the University of Washington, said this Thursday via Twitter.
Bedford, who also works with Fred Hutch’s vaccines and infectious diseases division, warned that the hypothesis was “highly speculative” at the time. “But separately, the fact that we’ve seen three variants of concern appear since September suggests that more are likely to come.”
To date, more than 93.2 million people have contracted Covid-19 worldwide, with 1.99 million deaths.
Professor Devi Sridhar, president of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said on Friday that the world had become “the backyard of the virus to mutate and evolve (especially) in countries that have allowed for greater prevalence” .