NEW DELHI: The judicious use of therapies that have not been established for the treatment of Covid-19 is responsible for putting “immune pressure on the virus” and leads to mutations of the virus, ICMR director general Dr. Balram Bhargava.
“Those therapies that are touted as ‘antiviral therapies’ or ‘anti-Covid’ and do not have benefits established in a scientific research article, those therapies should not be used as they will put tremendous immune pressure on the virus and it will tend to mutate further. Dr. Bhargava told ANI.
Speaking in the context of the mutation of the UK Covid virus strain, Dr Bhargava said that genetic mutations do occur in respiratory viruses, but increased transmissibility is a point of concern.
“Genetic mutations do occur in respiratory viruses and these minor deviations can occur from time to time, but once several deviations occur, it has a higher transmissibility rate as it did in the UK. So that’s a point of concern. although we are regularly testing virus variants in India. ”
He said that the immune pressure on the virus may be related to the environment and is more related to treatment or other modalities that cause this immune pressure on the virus.
“So it is important for our scientific community also that we do not put too much immune pressure on the virus and we have to maintain the judicious use of the therapies that are going to benefit. If the benefit is not established, we should not use those therapies. Rather, they will put tremendous immune pressure on the virus and it will tend to mutate further, “he said, noting that well-established therapies should be used.
He said experts will analyze the data.
“The vaccines that are at the forefront target S protein as well as M RNA, but we found that they will continue to be effective. We must be very careful to look for any advancement in immunity that may occur through vaccination,” he said.
“Those therapies that are touted as ‘antiviral therapies’ or ‘anti-Covid’ and do not have benefits established in a scientific research article, those therapies should not be used as they will put tremendous immune pressure on the virus and it will tend to mutate further. Dr. Bhargava told ANI.
Speaking in the context of the mutation of the UK Covid virus strain, Dr Bhargava said that genetic mutations do occur in respiratory viruses, but increased transmissibility is a point of concern.
“Genetic mutations do occur in respiratory viruses and these minor deviations can occur from time to time, but once several deviations occur, it has a higher transmissibility rate as it did in the UK. So that’s a point of concern. although we are regularly testing virus variants in India. ”
He said that the immune pressure on the virus may be related to the environment and is more related to treatment or other modalities that cause this immune pressure on the virus.
“So it is important for our scientific community also that we do not put too much immune pressure on the virus and we have to maintain the judicious use of the therapies that are going to benefit. If the benefit is not established, we should not use those therapies. Rather, they will put tremendous immune pressure on the virus and it will tend to mutate further, “he said, noting that well-established therapies should be used.
He said experts will analyze the data.
“The vaccines that are at the forefront target S protein as well as M RNA, but we found that they will continue to be effective. We must be very careful to look for any advancement in immunity that may occur through vaccination,” he said.
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