Just as the world saw hope with the approval of several covid-19 vaccines and the implementation of immunization plans, authorities in England announced in mid-December that they had detected a new strain of virus.
The news alarmed everyone, with many doubts about the appearance of the mutation: Was it more lethal? Are the symptoms more severe? Is it transmitted faster? Will the vaccine work?
The main fear was whether this variant of SARS-CoV-2 was more lethal than its predecessor in a context where many countries experience a saturation of hospitals for patients and others walk to the border.
Due to the recent situation, there is not much scientific information to address the issue, but the health authorities in England have already offered their first assessment and rule out, for now, that the variant is more lethal.
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They detect new strain
The Secretary of Health of England, Matt Hancock, Reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on a new strain of coronavirus (covid-19) on December 14, 2020.
English authorities associate this new variant with the increase in cases and hospitalizations in the south-west of England, with approximately 1,108 infections attributed to the mutation.
In his statements, Hancock detailed that the initial analysis showed that the new strain could be linked to the increase in cases, but that it was not precisely causing the increase, as they occurred in areas with flexible measures.
In addition, the secretary mentioned that although more than 10,000 cases have been identified, they are still not entirely sure to what extent the variant was able to intensify the infections.
The British Medical Journal details that the variant VUI-202012/01 (The first “Variant under investigation” in December 2020) is defined by an approximate set of more than 17 changes or mutations.
This mutation is an alteration in the S or Pico protein, With which the virus usually binds to receptors and the angiotensin converting enzyme; this is what causes it to enter the lung cell and cause lung damage.
Of interest: How should Honduras prepare for a new strain of coronavirus?
Does the vaccine work?
This strain was detected through an investigation conducted in early December by the Consornio Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG UK), An association set up in April 2020 in the UK to capture samples of SARS-CoV-2.
The episode was characterized by an increase in the case notification rate to more than triple during the 14 days from epidemiological week 41 to 50 (October 5 to December 13). 2020), according to the WHO report. Although in September there was already a record of this new strain.
As expected, viruses are changing their genetic structure and therefore strains or variants appear. That is why one of the main unknowns is about the effectiveness of the vaccine in the face of this new variant.
To begin with, the main function of a vaccine is to generate immunity for the body against a disease, producing antibodies that will then act to protect against future infections, as the immune system will be able to recognize the infectious agent and destroy it. .
In the case of the Pfizer vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, experts say it is able to attack different parts of the virus despite the mutation, but remain vigilant in case the virus continues to show more variants. This would lead to a reprogramming of the vaccine.
The new strain has already spread to several European countries and is associated with an increase in cases in the south-west of England. Likewise, Chile detected its first case and the United States keeps under suspicion 1:00 suspect.
In the case of Honduras, the main problem is that one would not really know what the variant is because much more specific tests are needed to detect it and therefore they are usually more expensive.
Read also: Ministry of Health says four million vaccines will come to Honduras
What is lethality?
Although it has been speculated that the new strain could be the cause of a greater transmission, so far there is not enough information that can verify this hypothesis as it has been detailed that in places that showed greater evidence of contagion they did not have the proper restrictions.
In addition, official data shows higher signs of contagion, going from about 32,500 between December 27 to more than 53,000 new cases registered on December 29 in England.
In contrast, deaths show a result of 347 deaths to an increase of 414 deaths caused by this disease, which concludes that the new strain may be more contagious but not more lethal.
After that, the England Department of Health presented a report (you can see it here) with the first findings of an investigation into people infected with this mutation, which ruled out any indication of higher lethality.
“Preliminary results from the cohort study found no statistically significant differences in hospitalization and lethality at 28 days between cases with the variant (i.e., the new strain) and wild-type comparison cases, ”the analysis concludes.
The researchers then asserted that “there were no significant differences in the probability of reinfection between the variant cases and the comparison group.”
On the other hand, it is very urgent to draw conclusions about this new variant as it is still under constant observation by the World Health Organization and the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG UK).
So far, the main WHO recommendations to reduce the risk of infection in the face of this new mutation are constant hand washing and keeping distance.
conclusion:
The claim that the new coronavirus strain is more lethal than the original is false.
The only study to date, published by the English Department of Health (where the variant was detected), rules out an increase in lethality or an increase in hospitalizations as a result of this mutation in a study group.
“Preliminary results from the cohort study found no statistically significant differences in hospitalization and lethality at 28 days between cases with the variant (i.e., the new strain) and wild-type comparison cases, ”the analysis concludes.
However, experts have called for maintaining biosecurity measures, because it is very likely that this variant will be more contagious, which would lead to an increase in cases and the saturation of hospitals.