The medical staff works inside a mobile testing unit in Ekurhuleni.
Photographer: Luca Sola / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Luca Sola / AFP / Getty Images
The new strain of coronavirus that emerged in South Africa is even more problematic than a mutated form that caused further blockages in much of the UK, health authorities said on Monday.
“I am incredibly concerned about the South African variant,” UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on BBC radio on Monday, citing a conversation over the Christmas holidays with his South African counterpart. “One of the reasons they know they have a problem is that, like us, they have an excellent genomic scientific ability to study the details of the virus. And it’s even more of a problem than the new UK variant. “
The South African The variant is causing an increase in infections in the country and, like the UK strain, appears to be more infectious than previous mutations. However, there is still no evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines approved so far do not work against new strains.
To say the South African strain is more problematic than the UK variant is “politics more than science” right now, said Richard Lessells, an infectious disease specialist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Researchers must first do the necessary experiments to understand the new variants, he said. So far, officials have provided little evidence to support the idea that the South African strain is more problematic than the new one first identified in the UK, where cases are also on the rise.
“The effectiveness of vaccines is clearly one of the big questions that arises when discovering these new variables and we understand that everyone wants answers right away,” Lessells said. “But it takes a while to get the answers.”
The shots will likely still be effective against the British variant of the coronavirus, while questions remain about the South African version, an Oxford professor working with the British government on its vaccination program told Times Radio on Sunday. Mutations are unlikely to completely “deactivate” effective vaccines, Bell said.
“We have a bit of room for vaccines to work, I think, much better than anyone thought they would work,” he said. “We have room for maneuver. If they worked 20% less well due to a mutation, we would still have good vaccines.
“Cat and Mouse”
Even if the new variants were able to evade the vaccines “it’s perfectly possible” to adapt and make new ones, possibly within six weeks, if necessary, Bell said. “Now we are in a game of cat and mouse. These are not the only two variants we will see. “
Young people under the age of 20 may also be more affected by the new UK variant, researchers at Imperial College London said preliminary analysis published on 31 December. It’s too early to say why that might be the case, and the results may have been influenced by the fact that the closure kept more adults at home, but schools were open, they said.
South African medical scientists are designing studies to determine the clinical impact of the new variant of coronavirus found in that country, said Glenda Gray, chair of the South African Council for Medical Research.
South African doctors have seen anecdotal evidence showing more young people without pre-existing conditions are getting seriously ill with the new version, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said last month.
There is no evidence that the South African variant is more transmissible or causes more serious diseases than the British variant, Mkhize said in a statement on December 24th. Both variants were developed independently and there is evidence that the British strain predates the South African one. , Said Mkhize.
Early research indicates that the South African variant may be related to a higher viral load than viruses that had previously circulated in the area, according to the World Health Organization, although it is still being investigated. As of December 30, the variant had been reported in four other countries. The UK variant has been found more widely, with reports spanning 31 other countries, territories and areas of the world.
Read more: Why the UK’s mutated coronavirus is worrying: QuickTake
– With the assistance of Antony Sguazzin
(Updates with comments from the scientist in the fourth paragraph, WHO in the final paragraph)