New Delhi: The UK Health Ministry recently announced that the lambda COVID-19 strain is more dangerous than the ‘delta’ variant. The ministry further said that the variant has been detected in 30 countries in the last 4 weeks.
On Monday, the health ministry tweeted, “The lambda strain originated from Peru, the country with the highest mortality rate in the world,” The Star reported.
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It further reported that the Ministry of Health had added to the report of Australian news portal news.com.au saying that the lambda strain had been detected in the United Kingdom. According to the portal, six cases of the lambda strain have been detected in the UK so far.
However, researchers are concerned that this variant may be “more contagious than the delta version”, The Star reported.
Euro News quoted the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) as reporting that lambdas accounted for about 82 percent of coronavirus case samples reported during May and June in Peru.
Not reported in India yet
Speaking to ANI, Dr Pragya Yadav, Head, Maximum Prevention Facility, National Institute of Virology said, “The lambda variant has been detected in 30 countries. The lambda variant was first reported from Peru in December 2020. From this version The number of reported cases is increasing in different countries, indicating it to be highly transmissible. A recent study showed that the lambda variant mRNA is susceptible to vaccine-elicited antibodies and convalescent serum neutralizing the lambda variant. was able to”.
lambda diff behavior
PAHO’s regional advisor on emerging viral diseases, Jairo Mendez, said on June 30 it was detected in eight countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, “but sporadically in most countries”. While it is clearly the dominant strain in Peru, in Chile, it accounts for more than 31 percent of May and June samples, Euro News reported. Mendez further said that there is no clear evidence yet that it was a more communicable virus.
The variant comes at a time when Europe is battling the Delta variant that was first detected in India.
According to the WHO, the lambda variant contains at least seven significant mutations in the spike protein (the delta variant has three) which may have several implications, including the potential for increased transmittance or increased resistance to antibodies, which or So created through natural transition. or vaccination. Until recently, the lambda version was concentrated in a handful of South American countries, including Ecuador and Argentina.
The behavior of the lambda variant is not well understood, but a recent study by Research in Chile found that mutations in the spike protein of the lambda variant of interest increased infectivity and increased antibodies triggered by CoronaVac. Neutralization saved immunity. Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine. Even though the study was limited to just one vaccine, the researchers said the large-scale vaccination campaigns currently underway should also be accompanied by strict genomic surveillance.
The study said it would allow “identification of new isolates carrying spike mutations and immunology studies aimed to determine the impact of these mutations in immune escape and vaccine success.”
“There is currently limited evidence on the full extent of the effects associated with these genomic alterations, and further robust studies into phenotype effects are needed to better understand the effects on the phenotype and control spread,” WHO said in a statement. “
“Further studies are also needed to validate the continued effectiveness of the vaccines.”
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