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“If we let the virus continue to circulate freely, we give it a lot of possibilities to better adapt to human transmission,” Tulio de Oliveira, the Brazilian behind the discovery of a new “more transmissible” mutation in the next coronavirus, tells BBC News Brazil. . causing concern around the world.
Oliveira is director of the Krisp laboratory, at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa, where he has lived since 1997. He led the team that discovered the new variant of the coronavirus in the country and shared the data . with the WHO (World Health Organization), which in turn allowed the UK to discover its own variant.
The two variants are more transmissible than the original, but, for now, it is not known if they are more lethal, says Oliveira.
They share some similarities, but have evolved separately. They both have a mutation, called N501Y, located in a crucial part of the virus, which is used to infect cells in the human body.
In South Africa, the new variant identified by Oliveira and his team would be behind the second wave of the country’s pandemic. It spread rapidly and became the dominant form of the virus in some parts of the territory, causing saturation of the health system.
The UK variant, which is also more contagious, has spread to south-east England, creating new restrictions and quarantines for the local population.
According to the British Health Secretary (equivalent to Minister), Matt Hancock, this mutation is “out of control”.
On Wednesday (12/23), the Brazilian government decided to temporarily ban international flights originating from or passing through the United Kingdom, as a result of what more than 40 countries had already done.
The ban begins to take effect this Friday (12/25).
Earlier in the week, the government had decided to keep flying, but said it was monitoring the situation.
See below the main extracts from the interview with Oliveira.
BBC News Brazil – What is this new variant about? Is there any reason to panic?
Tulio de Oliveira – In South Africa, we discovered a variant that appears to be spreading infections much more rapidly. We discovered this variant in Nelson Mandela Bay, one of the most touristic regions in South Africa. This variant quickly expanded to Cape Town and Durban.
When we sequenced the genetic code, we found that it had many mutations, mainly in the protein spike, the protein of the virus that enters the human receptor to enter human cells.
Some of the mutations in this protein occurred at position 501, in an amino acid called tyrosine.
This mutation was also found in a completely different strain in the UK, but it has a mutation [em comum] between them. And it is exactly this mutation that we believe is related to the increased transmissibility of the virus.
So far, the biggest cause of danger is that, because the transmissions are faster, our hospitals are completely saturated with patients in need of intensive care. So, at the moment, we cannot receive more patients in the hospitals.
Both we and the British think that these two variants are potentially no longer lethal, but they are hitting hospitals in the UK and South Africa heavily.
BBC News Brazil – What would be your recommendation for Brazilians, to prevent this mutation from circulating?
Oliveira – First, we do not know if the same variant is already in Brazil. Mainly because the genomic part of Brazil is not as strong as in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Therefore, it will not surprise us that several countries in the world, as they begin to sequence more the genomes of their strains, find viruses more adapted to transmission.
Second, Brazil has never managed to control the covid-19 pandemic, and therefore the possibility of another strain developing or importing into Brazil is high.
For Brazil, it would be important to control the pandemic, make sure there are hospital beds and try to reduce the number of people who die from this disease.
BBC News Brazil – That is, since Brazil is not strong in the genetic sequencing of the virus, we do not know if this mutation has already reached Brazil, or if some other mutation has already reached Brazil, or even if there are mutations in the virus itself that have yet to be discovered in other parts of the world …
Oliveira – That’s exactly it. The main message is that if we allow this virus to circulate at a medium or high level, we give a good chance that the virus is better adapted to transmission in humans.
So my suggestion for Brazil, and we work a lot with Fiocruz [que divulgou em junho novo protocolo de sequenciamento, usado pelos cientistas que estão fazendo a vigilância genética no país], the Ministry of Health, the Federal University of Minas Gerais – is to increase the sequencing part of the virus to try to better understand which lines are circulating and to try to detect now a line that circulates much faster or an external introduction of a line that tends circulate and cause more infections.
