Coronavirus variant found in people in Japan who have been to Brazil | Coronavirus

According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, the four infected were in the Amazon; there are no details about the cities where they passed. The patients presented a variant similar to those that spread rapidly in the United Kingdom and South Africa and are concerned about the greater contagion capacity. (get more details later in this article).

According to the Japanese government, these patients are:

• A man in his 40s who arrived in Japan without symptoms, but was later admitted to the hospital with breathing difficulties;
• A woman in her 30s, with a sore throat and headache;
• A young man between 10 and 19 years old, with a fever;
• Young woman, also between 10 and 19 years old, asymptomatic.

Wanted for G1said the Brazilian Ministry of Health, through its press office, which is still verifying the reported cases in Japan.

The Amazonas Health Surveillance Foundation declared to the G1 who has not received any notification about the four cases of the variant and said that “it is investigating with the Consulate of Japan about this disclosure that was made known to the press and not to the health authorities of Amazonas and the country.”

The Amazon, until this Sunday, had no confirmed cases of the new variants of the coronavirus. On Saturday, the state reached 212,996 cases of Covid-19 and 5,669 deaths from the disease. The numbers have been on the rise in recent weeks: the capital Manaus recorded 130 burials on Saturday alone, one of the highest since the start of the pandemic.

In Japan, the arrival of the new variants in December prompted the government to ban all foreigners and declare a state of emergency, even in the capital Tokyo, less than 200 days before the Olympics. The country is experiencing a further acceleration in coronavirus cases and deaths, and the number of daily Covid-19 diagnoses has this month reached the highest levels since the start of the pandemic.

The National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), linked to the Japanese government, explains that the variant detected in travelers who were in Brazil is B1.1.248 with 12 mutations in the peak protein, which connects the pathogen with the infected cell. .

With some differences, this variant is similar to the viruses found in South Africa and which have generated concern on the part of health authorities due to its high capacity for dissemination. However, NIID director Takaji Wakita told a news conference on Sunday that he still there is no way to confirm this greater contagion capacity pathogens that arrived in Brazil.

In the statement, NIID warns that one of these mutations suffered by the Brazilian variant is E484, which is concerned about affecting the ability of monoclonal antibodies to neutralize coronavirus infection in cells.

“There is concern that conventional immunity against the virus may be less effective against viruses with the E484 mutation,” says the Japanese health agency.

However, from a clinical point of view, there is so far no evidence that these new variants cause more severe symptoms of Covid-19 or make the disease more deadly. A variant similar to this has caused, in Salvador, one of the few cases of Covid-19 reinfection in Brazil confirmed so far.

In an interview with NewsThe president of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, Ricardo Gazzinelli, said that the vaccine must still protect against these mutations, but said that monitoring of strains, variants and strains should continue. (watch the interview in the VIDEO above).

“It is important to monitor and sequence the genome of the virus in practically real time, so that we can have this information about the main mutations that are in circulation,” he said.

VIDEOS: news about vaccines against Covid-19