By Karen Graham
Published July 8, 2021
Concern is rising over potentially more dangerous variants of the coronavirus - © AFP
With multiple variants of the coronavirus already circulating in Canada, it is not surprising that a new one has now been identified. The variant is responsible for 11 cases in the country so far, according to Health Canada.
The World Health Organization (WHO) designated Lambda as a “variant of interest” on June 14. This designation means the resulting mutations are believed to affect the virus’s transmissibility and severity and are causing “significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters” in multiple countries.
“Lambda has been associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time concurrent with increased COVID-19 incidence,” reads an epidemiological update from the WHO released on June 15.
The Lambda variant, also called C.37, was first identified in Peru in August 2020, according to Global News. It has since spread to 29 countries, including Canada and the United States.
The WHO says Lambda is now accounting for an increasing share of cases in some South American countries like Argentina and Chile.
Keep in mind that Lambda is still only a “variant of interest.” To become a “variant of concern,” the virus would have to be shown to be more transmissible, cause more severe illness, or be able to get around existing vaccines and treatments.
CBC Canada is reporting that Dr. Lucas Castellani, an infectious diseases specialist at the Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario says, “There are mutations on the spike protein portion of the virus, which as we know is one of the important pieces of the virus, and the mutations are slightly different than some of the previous mutations we’ve seen.”
“That said, what we don’t know is what all of this means.”
Dr. Anthony Chow, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia’s division of infectious diseases, also cautioned that the strain has the potential to turn into a variant of concern.
“It is highly transmissible, and that it has been a hallmark of variants of concern — the way they spread,” said Chow.
The best defense against any of the variants to date is being vaccinated. A recent lab study done in the U.S. has been published online but has not yet been peer-reviewed. It suggests that the “vaccines in current use will remain protective against the lambda variant and that monoclonal antibody therapy will remain effective.”
The Lambda Covid-19 variant is now spreading beyond Latin America
REUTERS/JOSE CABEZAS Waiting and watching.
By Manavi Kapur & Tripti Lahiri
Published July 8, 2021
While the world reels under the effects of the Delta variant, a new Covid-19 mutation is now on the radar of several countries.
The Lambda variant, or C.37, believed to have originated from Peru, was designated as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 14. A variant of interest categorisation is a level below the “variant of concern.”
There are currently four variants of interest, which are characterised by the presence of mutations that are associated with increased transmissibility, severity of disease, or the ability to evade immunity from vaccines or past infections. This does not mean that these variants have been yet confirmed to be more transmissible or to cause more severe infections—only that the genetic structure of the mutated virus points to the possibility of these happening. In addition to these criteria, variants of interest are also classified when there are known cases of community transmission or Covid-19 clusters.
Though the Delta variant, a variant of concern first detected in India and thus far believed to be the most transmissible and resilient variant of Covid-19, dominates most infections across the world, six cases of the Lambda variant have now been found in the UK, all linked to international travellers. There are no cases of the variant reported in India yet.
Lambda’s origins
Initially known as the “Andean variant” after being detected in Peru in December 2020, the C.37 variant drew little notice beyond Latin America as the Alpha variant, first seen in Kent, England around the same time, preoccupied the world.
When the WHO moved to rechristen variants to discourage them from being associated with the place where they surfaced, the variant was renamed for the Greek letter lambda.
Is Lambda more transmissible than Delta?
“There is currently limited evidence available about this variant,” Dr Alicia Demirjian, Covid incident director at Public Health England (PHE), told BBC Science Focus magazine. The PHE is currently testing the viral strain in laboratories to identify its characteristics and its possible impact on community transmission. “There is currently no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease or renders the vaccines currently deployed any less effective,” it said.
As Peruvian microbiologist Pablo Tsukuma pointed out in a long Twitter thread on the Lambda in May, variations in regional capacity for sequencing explain why we know so much less about Lambda than Alpha, or even Delta, right now.
Where in the world is Lambda?
As of late June, Lambda has been found in more than two dozen countries, according to the UK government, which designated it a “variant under investigation” on June 23, citing its “international expansion.”
It’s so far widely prevalent only in Latin America, including Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina. In Peru, for example, it accounted for 81% of the cases sequenced between mid-April and mid-June—from less than 1% when first discovered. It’s also the country that has reported the highest official per capita death rate from Covid-19.
And so far, in places where the Delta variant is also present, the latter appears to spread far more easily. Portugal for example saw its first Lambda cases in April—but in Portugal, like in the UK, the Delta accounts for the vast share of new cases.
REUTERS/JOSE CABEZAS Waiting and watching.
By Manavi Kapur & Tripti Lahiri
Published July 8, 2021
While the world reels under the effects of the Delta variant, a new Covid-19 mutation is now on the radar of several countries.
The Lambda variant, or C.37, believed to have originated from Peru, was designated as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 14. A variant of interest categorisation is a level below the “variant of concern.”
There are currently four variants of interest, which are characterised by the presence of mutations that are associated with increased transmissibility, severity of disease, or the ability to evade immunity from vaccines or past infections. This does not mean that these variants have been yet confirmed to be more transmissible or to cause more severe infections—only that the genetic structure of the mutated virus points to the possibility of these happening. In addition to these criteria, variants of interest are also classified when there are known cases of community transmission or Covid-19 clusters.
Though the Delta variant, a variant of concern first detected in India and thus far believed to be the most transmissible and resilient variant of Covid-19, dominates most infections across the world, six cases of the Lambda variant have now been found in the UK, all linked to international travellers. There are no cases of the variant reported in India yet.
Lambda’s origins
Initially known as the “Andean variant” after being detected in Peru in December 2020, the C.37 variant drew little notice beyond Latin America as the Alpha variant, first seen in Kent, England around the same time, preoccupied the world.
When the WHO moved to rechristen variants to discourage them from being associated with the place where they surfaced, the variant was renamed for the Greek letter lambda.
Is Lambda more transmissible than Delta?
“There is currently limited evidence available about this variant,” Dr Alicia Demirjian, Covid incident director at Public Health England (PHE), told BBC Science Focus magazine. The PHE is currently testing the viral strain in laboratories to identify its characteristics and its possible impact on community transmission. “There is currently no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease or renders the vaccines currently deployed any less effective,” it said.
As Peruvian microbiologist Pablo Tsukuma pointed out in a long Twitter thread on the Lambda in May, variations in regional capacity for sequencing explain why we know so much less about Lambda than Alpha, or even Delta, right now.
Where in the world is Lambda?
As of late June, Lambda has been found in more than two dozen countries, according to the UK government, which designated it a “variant under investigation” on June 23, citing its “international expansion.”
It’s so far widely prevalent only in Latin America, including Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina. In Peru, for example, it accounted for 81% of the cases sequenced between mid-April and mid-June—from less than 1% when first discovered. It’s also the country that has reported the highest official per capita death rate from Covid-19.
And so far, in places where the Delta variant is also present, the latter appears to spread far more easily. Portugal for example saw its first Lambda cases in April—but in Portugal, like in the UK, the Delta accounts for the vast share of new cases.
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