On Friday, World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan raised concerns about the South African variant of Coronavirus. She said the preliminary experiments have shown that monoclonal antibodies that were effective against SARS-CoV2 are not as effective against the South African variant.
In South Africa a new version of Coronavirus is leading the second wave of diseases and concerns are being raised about its response to the Covid-19 vaccines. South Africa named the variant 501Y.V2 because of the N501Y mutation they found in the spike protein that the virus uses to enter cells inside the body. A similar imitation was also found in the new snort the UK notified WHO in December.
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Dr Swaminathan said the COVID-19 vaccine is now being tested in laboratories in the UK and South Africa to see if it can neutralize South African snoring.
” On January 12, to explain important research questions related to viral changes, WHO is bringing together virologists and laboratory experts, our virus evolution working group and vaccine developers, ” she said.
According to the lead scientist, when there is more transmission in the population all the viruses are circulating and different changes are about to occur. In the coming weeks, more experimental data will reveal whether these mutations have any effect on the efficacy of monoclonal vaccines and antibodies.
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Dr. Swaminathan also praised the country’s focus on vaccination and population immunization against Covid-19. She said the country needs to be vigilant so that a large vaccine raises population immunity levels. On Friday, India reported a total of 82 people with a new mutant strain in the UK, however, no reports have been received about a South African mutant found in the country at present.
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According to researchers, a mutation at this level caused a decrease in the ability of antibodies to prevent the virus from entering cells larger than 10-fold. Even though South African experts are still looking into the details of the new COVID-19 modification, the health minister said last week that the particular pressure had affected the results of the diseases, especially in the last two months. Calling it a trend in the epidemiological scene, doctors have reported that co-infections affected more younger patients and developed severe forms of the sometimes fatal infectious disease.
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