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The British and South African variants of the coronavirus, considered the most infectious, are already in Poland. The former is responsible for more and more cases of COVID-19 infections. Earlier, the Ministry of Health informed about the Czech variant, and recently there was information about the detection of the «Podlasie» strain. How many variants have been discovered in Poland so far and what does this mean for us?
- The SARS-CoV-2 virus keeps mutating, because that’s in its nature, according to epidemiologists
- Among the huge number of variants discovered, two were found to be “alert” or more infectious – British and South African. Both strains are already present in Poland
- Many more variants have been discovered in our country. Should this worry us?
- You can find more about the coronavirus on the Onet homepage.
British variant of COVID-19 in Poland
The UK variant of the virus, also known as B.1.1.7, is currently considered the most dangerous due to its greater contagiousness and the area in which it has been identified. Discovered in Kent in Fall, has so far appeared in 93 countries, is starting to dominate many populations and is largely responsible for the latest wave of coronavirus.
According to epidemiologists’ estimates, it is from 40 to 70 percent. more contagious than the “original” coronavirus. This variant infects more people, but has not yet been found to be any more lethal than the primary.
- UK Coronavirus Variant – Five Things You Need to Know
In Poland, it was first detected on January 21. According to the latest information, it is responsible for over 10 percent. COVID-19 cases in our country. However, a recent discovery in the province. Warmia and Mazury speak of a much larger scale.
On Tuesday, the local health authority informed that in randomly selected 24 samples of people infected with coronavirus, variant B.1.1.7 accounted for as much as 70 percent. According to the inspectors, this could be the cause of a sharp increase in infections in the region. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health informed about 970 cases in Warmia and Mazury. That’s the highest since January 6.
The head of the Department of Health and Social Sciences in Warmia and Mazury emphasized that 24 samples were not enough to generalize the results of the study. – But it is definitely a disturbing premise and we will map the region to test new samples – said Janusz Dzisko.
The South African variant, marked with the symbol B.1.351, is the second most contagious. It was discovered in October 2020 and has been spotted in nearly 50 countries so far.
On February 19, the Minister of Health, Adam Niedzielski, informed about his presence in Poland. So far, there is only one case. The infected person comes from the vicinity of Suwałki, and the strain was recognized by a research team from Białystok.
- South African strain of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. What do we know about him? [WE EXPLAIN]
– We did 69 sequences and it turned out that there are 18 British variants that were already loud in Europe and Poland, on the other hand, one case was the South African variant, which we did not expect, because so far there have been no reports in Poland that such a variant may appear in our country – said in Radio Białystok prof. Joanna Reszeć, head of the Academic Center for Pathomorphological and Genetic-Molecular Diagnostics, Medical University of Bialystok.
How quickly can variant B.1.351 spread?
– It all depends on how we behave. If we follow the sanitary regime, I think this variant will not spread that much, however, it is also important to catch these variants early – explains Prof. The rest.
According to epidemiologists, the South African variant of the coronavirus is more common in young people with no underlying conditions, and is more likely to cause serious illness than other variants.
Other COVID-19 variants in Poland
The British and South African variants are the only ones that have recently been officially announced by the Ministry of Health. However, research centers, such as Białystok, are reporting further discoveries.
In addition to the two strains mentioned, scientists from the Medical University of Bialystok on Friday informed about the identification of 10 other variants of the coronavirus. The speech was about variants of Irish origin (B.1.1.74, B.1.1.160), Belgian (B.1.1.221) and (B.1.1.141), as well as “new, not yet described variants”.
- Mutation, variant, strain, variant of the coronavirus. Can these terms be used interchangeably? [WE EXPLAIN]
Should these discoveries worry us?
– Each virus mutates, it is in its nature, and creates a mass of variants. And whether a given variant is more or less widespread depends on its advantage over the previous ones. Most of the variants are lost because they are not able to dominate the environment – says Prof. Robert Flisiak, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology at the Medical University of Białystok, president of the Polish Society of Epidemiologists and Doctors of Infectious Diseases.
In his opinion, it takes time to assess whether we are dealing with a real threat.
— A variant becomes relevant when it makes up a significant percentage of the virus population detected. It becomes especially dangerous when this percentage increases rapidly. The first is the epidemiological assessment of its incidence, and then deeper research is carried out. affinity to antibodies, which allows us to assess whether we can protect ourselves against this variant with current vaccines. Research on the emergence and increase in the frequency of variants is needed to be able to track which of them may dominate – adds Flisiak.
The “Podlasie variant”, also discovered by the center in Białystok, also caused a lot of confusion. It was discovered among the inhabitants of Bielsk Podlaski, Sokółka and Grajewo.
– All these variants are related to the geolocation of this virus. Above all, however, these variants do not differ that much drastically from, say, the classic starting virus variant. However, our Podlasie, of course, we mockingly called it “Podlaski”, because it did not quite fit all these other variants, it is a variant that differs little from those variants found in the regions of Europe – she said on on Radio Białystok prof. The rest.
- All about the British, Brazilian and South African variants
– The discovery of the Podlasie variant proves the possibilities of the Białystok center, which in a short time, on a large number of samples, is able to carry out tests detecting various variants. This is due to the excellent equipment of this center – explains Prof. Flisiak.
A few weeks ago it became loud about the “Czech variant” detected in Poland. It was officially reported by the Ministry of Health, even before the British strain appeared in our country. “There was one variant in the meaning of the mutation pattern in the S gene reported by ECDC – the so-called Czech with the characteristic mutation N439K ».
Representatives of the Czech authorities then denied that such a mutation had been detected in their country.
As prof. Flisiak?
– It’s a bit of a bizarre situation. Someone detected in the Czech Republic, someone heard us. The variant did not become popular and everyone in the Czech Republic forgot about it, and in our case it stuck in someone’s head – he says.
We learn about new variants appearing in the world every week. Recently, American scientists identified seven new variants found in the USA, and a few days later, the emergence of a Finnish strain, discovered by a laboratory in Helsinki, was reported. The Finnish variety has the characteristics of the British and South African variants, but its “evolutionary line is different”.
- The British variant of the virus mutated again. What does it mean?
– The variants we hear about are the only ones that can survive. Every day millions of variants are created, with each multiplication there is a risk of creating another variant. Only some of them have better conditions to adapt to the human body than those that have been so far – explains Prof. Robert Flisiak.
– To be able to talk about a new variant, it is enough that it differs by one nucleotide (SARS-CoV-2 is a virus whose genome has over 29 nucleotides – editor’s note). There are a huge number of combinations, the virus modifies itself to adapt to conditions. And when a given variant finds the conditions to spread, it multiplies. It is such a roulette, if it draws well, it multiplies, gradually dominating the current variant – he adds.
Read also:
- In France, many more infections, but fewer deaths than in Poland. Why do we have such a high mortality?
- Healers may respond differently to the coronavirus vaccine
- What does the COVID-19 vaccination look like? How should we prepare for them? [WE EXPLAIN]
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