Hyderabad (Telangana): "At this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community," said Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations recently. He was critical about the 'wildly uneven and unfair' distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in the world, saying only 10 countries in the world have used 75 per cent of the vaccine so far.
When Antonio Guterres was criticising a socially unfair vaccine distribution programme, health experts are warning us about the continuing mutation of the SARS Cov-2 Coronavirus in various countries when it is spreading through the population, pressing on the need to have a wider vaccine coverage to control the spread and to minimise chances of further mutations. Though genetic mutations of RNA viruses are very common, a closer study is required to understand whether the virus is changing its character through these mutations.
So far, the new mutant genes found in SARS Cov-2 CoronaVirus have not been too different. The UK variant, the South African variant, the Brazil variant and the Californian variant had a similar gene mutation but are found to be more infectious. These gene mutations are affecting the spike protein in the viruses. Spike proteins help the virus to attach itself to human cells in the nose, lungs and other areas of the body. Robert Bollinger, MD, MPH, an expert on SARS-COV-2 CoronaVirus had said in a publication. He said that these mutations make the virus 'stickier' and the UK variant have proved to be spreading faster than the variant found in China.
So do we have to be panicky as Covid cases are suddenly showing an upward spiral in some of the states in the country?. India already has several cases of infection from the UK variant. Four cases of South African variant infection and one case of Brazilian variant infection have also been reported in the country.
Medical experts point out that there is no need for unnecessary panic but insist on not dropping our guard against the virus spread. The thumb rules of prevention, ie- wearing a mask, practising social distancing and regular hand sanitisation — seem to work better in controlling the spread. They say that even those who are vaccinated should continue to do these preventive measures.
Stuart Ray MD, another expert on the SARS-COV-2 CoronaVirus from John Hopkins University had said in the University publication, “There is new evidence from the laboratory studies that some immune responses driven by current vaccines could be less effective against some of the new strains”.
But he is quick to add that reduction in one response may not completely weaken the immune response of the vaccine as an immune response provided by a preventive vaccine involves many components.
Is India in for more trouble?
Some of the states in India have seen a surge in cases of infection in the last week. When in Kerala the numbers continue to hover around 5000 new cases per day, Karnataka and Maharashtra are witnessing more cases per day, despite the state witnessing a considerable drop in the number of tests done per day. The Kerala government is increasing the number of tests done per day but continues to have similar numbers of new infections but with reducing test positivity rates. Whereas in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the number of tests has halved from above 1 lakh to about 60 thousand per day and the test positivity rates are going up in these states.
It is observed that after the launch of the vaccination programme and several phases of unlocking, people have developed a sense of fearlessness towards the infection and are not serious about sticking to the preventive measures. Corresponding to this, voluntary testing for possible infections have also come down, helping the virus spread more easily. The present scenario is forcing many administrations to think about reintroducing lockdown to minimise public interaction. However, medical experts suggest that personal level preventive measures, masks, social distancing and hand hygiene could efficiently keep the infection at bay.
Those who are already vaccinated should also continue to do these personal preventive measures as researches are yet to finalise the effectiveness of the present vaccines against the new variants. Health departments will have to ensure that people stick to the preventive protocol.
Wider spread means more deaths, irrespective of the genetic mutation to the virus. Medical experts point out that people should not be worried about the virus mutating into a more fatal one. Robert Bollinger had said that there were no clear indications yet to determine that the new variants are more virulent or dangerous in terms of causing more severe Covid 19 disease. The mutations that make a virus more deadly may take away its ability to spread faster, he had noted.
New variants of the SARS-COV-2 CoronaVirus are detected every week and more mutations are likely as long as it keeps on spreading among the population. Geographic separation tends to result in genetically distinct variants. So the only effective way to prevent the development of newer variants is to reduce the spread of the virus.
So it is time to be more cautious and not to drop guard against the possible infection. People should also look for varied symptoms, which some studies suggest that the new variants are causing and should test themselves. The classical symptoms caused by the Chinese variant, ie, loss of smell, fever and cough may not present in the new variants. Muscle aches (Mialgia) chronic fatigue and tiredness are some of the new symptoms attached to the new variants. It is important that people should get tested with any of these symptoms present and isolate themselves to avoid further spread. India needs to up its guard and should stick to personal preventive measures. Masks, social distancing and hand hygiene should be the order of the day till this virus and its variants disappear from society.
Read: China calls for Covid origin tracing in US after WHO probe in Wuhan
