Virus variant
Drosten: “No evidence of changes in the severity of the disease”
According to the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten, there are still many unanswered questions when assessing the virus variant newly discovered in South Africa. Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Great concerns about the new Corona variant discovered in South Africa. According to the virologist Christian Drosten, important findings are still lacking in order to assess the risk.
According to the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten, there are still many unanswered questions when assessing the virus variant newly discovered in South Africa.
It is unclear whether the variant is actually more contagious or whether another factor is the reason for the currently observed spread. “There is currently no evidence of a change in the severity of the disease,” said Drosten to the dpa news agency on Friday.
The genome changes in the pathogen indicated that the virus variant could evade the immune system. “Changes in the genome alone are not enough to speak of a worrying situation,” said the virologist from the Berlin Charité. In addition, it must be clear that the virus is spreading faster or has other changed properties, for example a more severe course of the disease. The evaluation of the variant has not yet been completed.
May just appear oversized
In South Africa there was a big wave of the delta variant in the winter there, Drosten continued. It is likely that the end of the wave of proliferation was caused by population immunity. “Since the incidence of infections has recently been greatly reduced, it is conceivable that newly emerging outbreaks might appear oversized against a very small background of other viruses, and this would hardly be noticeable in other countries where there is a higher current level of infection,” says Drosten. This uncertainty will clear up in a few days.
The appearance of variant B.1.1.529, which was initially identified in South Africa, has raised international concern. On Thursday, the South African Institute for Infectious Diseases NICD announced that 22 cases of the new variant had been detected in South Africa. More cases are to be expected in the course of the ongoing genome analyzes. In the meantime, infections with the variant have also been reported from other countries, including Belgium.
Many mutations are unknown
The variant has a particularly large number of mutations that are not previously known in this combination. On the one hand, the genetic changes affect the spike protein, which the viruses use to dock onto human cells. It also affects a region that plays a role in the uptake of the virus into human cells. Experts fear that the variant is more contagious than previous variants or that the vaccines no longer work.
“Based on current judgment, one should assume that the available vaccines will continue to protect in principle,” says Drosten. The protection against severe infections is particularly robust against virus changes. “The best protection against the new variant is therefore to close all vaccination gaps in the population and to give booster vaccinations quickly.”