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Until recently, Lithuania was looking for a fast-spreading strain of coronavirus in Britain. It was feared that the new variety would also reach Lithuania, as it was spreading faster.
When examining whether the new strain has reached our country, another line of the virus was found; It has also been identified in dozens of other European countries.
Experts say that there are currently at least a couple dozen virus lines in Lithuania.
In Lithuania: at least 20 varieties.
Daniel Naumovas, acting director of the Santara Clinics biobank, a senior medical biologist, says on tv3.lt that we already have at least 20 different strains of the virus in Lithuania. The identified virus lines have at least one mutation compared to the primary virus registered in China.
According to the biologist, this number should not be scared, because these strains are not much more dangerous than the Wuhan virus; the number of strains shows that the conditions for the mutation and spread of the virus are favorable.
“Such a number of virus lines should not scare people, because the mutations are often random, which does not give the virus” special “properties, that is, many mutations do not change the level of infectivity or the severity of the disease” says Naumov.
The new variety
In the first week of the year, looking for a very widespread variety in Great Britain in Lithuania, another variety was found that had not been registered in Lithuania until now: B.1.258. According to experts, this strain is characterized by a mutation, which reinforces the relationship with the human cell.
“Also, some monoclonal antibody drugs do not work against this strain of the virus,” Naumov said.
Professor Saulius Čaplinskas said on the TV3.lt program “Dienas pjūvis” last week that the new strain is spreading faster, therefore it is slightly more dangerous than the original virus found in Wuhan due to the speed of spread.
The mutated virus can spread 50 to 70 percent. Faster.
“If this mutation spreads, then all those predictions, like the spread of the virus, etc., are already of little value because their rate of spread is 0.4 or many times higher.” The bad news is that if this virus spreads faster, it means that more people get sick and, unfortunately, more people may not survive, ”said S. Čaplinskas.
According to the professor, there is also good knowledge. So far, there is no evidence that a new infected variety found in Lithuania could make people sicker.
“This virus does not cause a more severe clinical course, and in the same way, these mutations are not significant, in the sense that all the tools that are developed for the Wuhan strain diagnose the virus well,” said Chaplinsky.
According to the professor, vaccines against coronavirus and COVID-19 are also effective against the new strain.
It is not clear how infected you are
It is not yet clear how many people in Lithuania were infected with each virus line. A PCR test is required to determine which strain is infected in humans.
“As a result of the PCR test, one of the three identified targets disappears: the S gene. Today, the result of a PCR test of this type can indicate the detection of one of the 3 strains of the virus: mentioned in B.1.258, potentially dangerous, identified in the UK as B.1.1.7 or B.1.1.298.
In 2020, we detected only 9 such cases in the Santara clinics, 8 of which we conducted a sequencing study and proved to be a B.1.258 strain. This variety is likely to be imported, as it is found in 28 other countries, 20 of which are European countries, ”says D. Naumov.
According to D. Naumov, it is impossible to accurately determine and calculate the prevalence of each variety in Lithuania.
The most threatening is the English variety
According to D. Naumov, a specialist at Clínicas Santara, the threatening strains of the virus are defined as those that have two main characteristics.
First, if the strains contain a vaccine that is no longer effective; second, if the variety spreads very quickly and begins to dominate others.
So far, the biggest threat to society is the variety discovered in England.
“As there is no precise evidence to date that current strains are ‘running out of vaccines’, the biggest concern now should be the B.1.1.7 strain found in the UK, which is increasing the number of infections by 50 % to 74% “. D. Naumov.
This strain has 17 mutations, 8 of which occurred in the S gene responsible for binding to the human cell. This variety was first detected in the UK in September last year.
According to Naumov, there are an estimated 782 most common strains of the virus in the world.
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