08/08/2021 4:37 PM
Clarín.com
International
Updated 08/08/2021 4:37 PM
The
COVID
continues to
spread in the world and generated a Greek alphabet variants, a naming system used by the World Health Organization to track new mutations of the coronavirus.
Some variants of
COVID have
endowed the virus with more efficient ways of spreading between humans or even have the ability to evade the protection of vaccination campaigns.
Scientists remain focused on the Delta
, which is the rapidly increasing dominant variant around the world, but they
are tracking others that could one day take its place
.
Mumbai.
In India, the country where the Delta variant of COVID was detected.
Photo / EFE
The Delta variant of the coronavirus
It was first detected in India
and remains the most worrying.
It is affecting unvaccinated populations in many countries and
has been shown to be capable of infecting a higher proportion of vaccinated people
than its predecessors.
The
WHO
classifies Delta as a variant of concern, which means that it has been shown to be capable of increasing transmissibility,
causing more serious disease, or reducing the benefit of vaccines
and treatments.
As
Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in San Diego, United States,
told the
Reuters
news
agency
,
Delta's "super power" is its transmissibility
.
Massive COVID tests in Chennai, one of the cities hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Photo / EFE
Chinese researchers found that
people infected with Delta carry 1,260 times more virus in their noses
compared to the original version of the coronavirus.
While the original coronavirus took up to seven days
to cause symptoms,
the Delta variant can do so two to three days earlier
, giving the immune system less time to respond and mount a defense.
The "Delta Plus" variant of the coronavirus
Delta also appears to be mutating further, with reports emerging of a "
Delta Plus
"
variant
, a sub-lineage that carries
an additional mutation that has been shown to evade immune protection
.
India
listed Delta Plus as a variant of concern in June
, but neither the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the WHO have done so yet.
According to
Outbreak.info
, an open source COVID-19 database,
Delta Plus has been detected in at least 32 countries
.
Experts say that it is not yet clear whether it is more dangerous.
The Delta Plus variant has a great contagion power among the population.
Photo / AP
The Lambda variant of COVID
The Lambda variant has drawn attention as a potential new threat.
But
this version of the coronavirus, first identified in Peru in December,
could be regressing,
several infectious disease experts
told
Reuters
.
The WHO classifies Lambda as a variant of interest
, meaning it carries mutations suspected of causing a change in transmissibility or causing a more serious disease, but is still under investigation.
Laboratory studies show that
Lambda has mutations that resist vaccine-induced antibodies
.
Dr. Eric Topol
, professor of molecular medicine and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, told
Reuters
that the percentage of new Lambda cases reported to
GISAID
, a database that tracks variants of SARS-CoV-2, has been declining,
indicating that the variant is regressing
.
Vaccination campaign against COVID in Peru, one of the countries hardest hit by the Lambda variant.
Photo / Xinhua
In a recent call with the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, disease
experts said Lambda did not appear to be causing an increase in transmissibility.
Also, according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
vaccines appear to be holding up well against Lambda.
The dangerous variant of COVID B.1.621 in Colombia
It first emerged in
Colombia in January, where it caused a major outbreak -
a letter in the Greek alphabet has yet to be earned.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has listed it as a variant of interest
, while the British Ministry of Health describes B.1.621 as an investigational variant.
It carries several key mutations, such as E484K, N501Y, and D614G,
which have been linked to increased transmissibility
and decreased immune protection.
So far there have been 37 probable and confirmed cases in the United Kingdom
, according to a recent government report, and the variant has been identified in several patients in Florida, United States.
What new variants of COVID could arrive in the coming months
Dr.
Anthony Fauci
, the White House's chief medical adviser, recently warned that the United States
could be in trouble unless more citizens get vaccinated
, as a large group of unimmunized people gives the virus more opportunities to spread and mutate into new ones. variants.
Anthony Fauci.
The main adviser to the White House, warned about the possibility of new variants.
Photo / AP
Advocates of greater international distribution of vaccine doses by rich countries say the same could happen
, as variants emerge uncontrollably among populations in poor nations, where very few people have been inoculated.
Still, a key issue is that
current vaccines block severe disease but do not prevent infection
, said Dr. Gregory Poland, a vaccine scientist at the Mayo Clinic in the United States.
This is because
the virus is still able to replicate in the nose, even among vaccinated people
, who can transmit the disease through tiny aerosol droplets.
To defeat SARS-CoV-2, he said, Poland will
likely need a new generation of vaccines that will also block transmission
.
Until then, the world will remain vulnerable to the emergence of new variants of coronavirus.
Source / Reuters Agency
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