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Rome, December 21, 2020 – The English variant of Covid, virus SARS-CoV-2 it is spreading more and more rapidly in continental Europe and also in Italy. This is of concern for the health of health systems, but the ability of the human body to respond to infection should be the same as that caused by infection. Coronavirus that has caused chaos in Italy in recent months. We do not yet know if this transformation is really influential in the effectiveness of the vaccines discovered so far, which will most likely also work well against the variant that has been produced in the UK. Here is the point of the situation through questions and answers.
Coronavirus, the newsletter for December 21
1. What do we know about the English variant?
British researchers identified a variant of the Sars-Cov-2 virus that was spreading very rapidly in September. The news was relaunched yesterday by the international media because the situation in London and Kent (southeast of Great Britain) was defined by the government as “now out of control”. From the first data we know that the variant called VUI-202012/01 (variant under investigation) has three characteristic mutations that differentiate it from previous versions. The developing disease (Covid-19) shows a 70-80 percent increase in the speed of transmission, that is, it spreads much more easily than before, albeit with an essentially unchanged case fatality rate. The main mutation (N501Y) is located at the level of the peak protein, the platform that allows the virus to adhere to the mucous cells of the respiratory system, to which it binds through the ACE2 receptor, a kind of bridge that also acts as a take care of.
2. What changes for Italy?
Increase the level of attention of the epidemiology and public hygiene services. The English variant was also isolated in Italy in the laboratories of the Celio Military Polyclinic in Rome where the genome of the virus was sequenced from a positive subject, a woman, now isolated, who returned from the United Kingdom days ago. Several close contacts, including family members, were also located and held in solitary confinement. For treatment, the same protocol is applied as for any other asymptomatic and positive subject with Covid-19 swab.
Covid variant: the first case in Italy
3. What precautions to take?
Massimo Galli, former president of the Italian Society for Infectious Diseases (Simit) recommends caution. Do you die more or will there be unexpected negative consequences with the arrival of this variant? Yes, if we persist in neglecting the well-known precautions: avoid meetings, wear masks, wash hands frequently, change the air indoors, keep distance between people This new mutant is closely related to the further spread of the virus, not because faster, but because it has more affinity with the Ace2 receptors of human cells. That is why it requires the utmost attention.
Coronavirus variant in English: what the experts say
4. Is the anti-Covid vaccination in progress?
As for the fears that the Gb variant could cancel the anti-Covid vaccination campaign, do not panic – explains Maria Rita Gismondo, director of the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Diagnostics of the Sacco hospital in Milan – since the Targets are currently being developed. Stimulated antibodies are many, there should be no substantial problems. All available or upcoming vaccines aim to induce the production of neutralizing antibodies against the peak protein, taking advantage of an antigenic mosaic, thus achieving multiple objectives. Precisely today the approval of the Ema, the European Medicines Agency, for the vaccine against Covid-19 is expected. .
5. Will we be able to stop the epidemic and why have they been silent until now?
“The English variant is becoming dominant because the virus replicates more easily than before. In September the news circulated confidentially because it was technical information, now it is becoming a public health problem ”. This is the warm comment of Carlo Federico Perno, professor of Microbiology at UniCamillus and director of the Department of Microbiology at the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome. “This virus now spreads more easily,” continues Perno, who is in contact with virologist Ravy Gupta, from University College London, where the new variant was isolated. However, this does not mean that it causes more damage to the organism that hosts it, because by doing so it would end up becoming extinct: that is why the virus tries to reproduce itself by trying to coexist with the human organism that hosts it.
New strain panic: England isolated
6. What other harm could the English variant of Covid-19 cause?
“This virus – declared Claudio Zanon, director of the Observatory of Motor Health – damages the pulmonary alveoli, sometimes causing diffuse thrombosis and respiratory deficit due to interstitial pneumonia, but it also affects all other organs. A Rockefeller University publication described cases of long-distance haulers, people who after a modest initial infection treated at home struggle to heal and become chronic, with shortness of breath, chest pains, intestinal symptoms, headache, inability to concentrate, memory loss, tachycardia even from lying down or sitting down. ” This is because, reports Zanon, the virus settles within organs. Virologists, epidemiologists and specialists from various fields of medicine will tomorrow discuss the organopathy of Covid-19 and the variant in English during a webinar open to the public accessible through Facebook on the zoom platform (https://zoom.us/webinar / register / WN_jcojKcUfQnSD_UXkg- QP1w?). The heart, brain, digestive system and kidney are the organs most affected by the English variant, with sometimes very serious consequences.
7. Do current swabs and tests also identify the new variant?
Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the State University of Milan, says that for now the swabs, the kits we have, seem to work well also to find the new enemy, the VUI-202012/01 variant. Specific controls are needed, but the first findings confirm that we have been able to identify the mutation and therefore have the ability to monitor it. Keep in mind that the more the virus spreads and replicates, the more likely it is to undergo changes in its structure.
However, European laboratories will need to update nucleotides, the reagents used in the various SarsCov2 diagnostic kits, such as molecular swabs and rapid antigen tests. This was stated by the ECDC, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
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