Pune-based National Institute of Virology has confirmed the finding of a new variant of the coronavirus in one of its studies. According to a report published on bioRxiv, a website that publishes pre-print reports related to the medical field, it has been told that this variant has been found from nose and throat swabs of international travelers coming from Britain and Brazil.
Since the publication of this report, all kinds of apprehensions are being expressed from social media to media reports. It has been told in some media reports that this variant is quite dangerous.
Somewhere in social media, it is being described as a very lethal variant and somewhere it is being compared with the Delta variant.
BBC Hindi spoke to Dr. Pragya Yadav, a scientist at the National Institute of Virology, who detected this variant, to find answers to the questions related to this variant.
Where did this new variant come from?
The National Institute of Virology has detected this virus from the throat and nasal swabs of travelers who came to India from Brazil and Britain.
Dr. Pragya Yadav says, “Coronavirus variant B.1.1.28.2 was first detected in Brazil in April 2020. The World Health Organization has classified it as an important variant. Recently it has been named as Zeta variant.
"Variant B.1.1.28.2 was obtained from samples of international travelers coming to India from the UK (in December 2020) and Brazil (in January 2021) under genomic surveillance of SARS Cov-2. Both these passengers did not have any kind of diseases before infection and did not show symptoms of coronavirus till they recovered from getting infected.
How dangerous is the new variant?
Like all the variants of the coronavirus, scientists are considering this variant as very important. However, some media reports have described it as dangerous as the Delta variant.
Dr. Yadav, putting forth the scientific aspects related to the variant, says, “The World Health Organization puts any variant in the category of a variant of interest when a variant is found in many countries. Along with this, even if it is assumed that the variant can cause a situation of community transmission by spreading a large population, then it can still be kept in the category of an important variant that should be monitored.
This variant has been shown to have the ability to significantly reduce the immunity developed by certain EAU monoclonal antibody treatments. Along with this, this variant can also damage the immunity generated by sera after some mRNA vaccine is administered.
How can this variant cause harm?
The Syrian hamster model study of the variant found that infection with this variant was associated with a decreased risk of weight loss, increased respiratory tract virus samples, and severe lung damage.
Dr. Pragya Yadav says, “We have studied this variant on the Syrian hamster model. This is a popular way of understanding Covid-19 in which testing is done on animals. Through this process, the ability of the virus is assessed, how much is it capable of causing disease. We have compared the capabilities of this variant with a previously found variant under the same model. Through testing in this manner, we have found that this variant has caused very serious disease.”
Which vaccine will be effective?
After the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus, the first question in people's mind is that which vaccine is effective against this variant.
Dr. Yadav says that his team has studied the ability of the vaccine 'Covaccine', designed to protect against Covid-19, against this variant.
She says, “We have found in our study that the Covid-19 vaccine ‘Covaccine’ may be able to protect against this variant. But this variant should also be protected by vaccination of the vaccine.
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