GENEVA, Switzerland -
The World Health Organization said Wednesday that a variant of Covid-19 behind
the acceleration of
India's explosive outbreak has been found in dozens of
countries all over the world.
اضافة اعلان
The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of
Covid-19,
first found in India in October, had been detected in more than 4,500 samples
uploaded to an open-access database "from 44 countries in all six WHO regions".
"And WHO has received reports of detections from five
additional countries," it said in its weekly epidemiological update on the
pandemic.
Outside of India, it said that Britain had reported the
largest number of Covid cases caused by the variant.
Earlier this week, the WHO declared B.1.617 - which counts
three so-called sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and
characteristics - as a "variant of concern".
It was therefore added to the list containing three other
variants of Covid-19 - those first detected in Britain, Brazil and South
Africa.
The variants are seen as more dangerous than the original
version of the virus because they are either being more transmissible, deadly
or able to get past some vaccine protections.
'Rapid increase'
The WHO explained Wednesday that B.1.617 was added to the
list because it appears to be transmitting more easily than the original virus,
pointing to the "rapid increases in prevalence in multiple
countries".
WHO also pointed to "preliminary evidence" that
the variant was more resistant to treatment with the monoclonal antibody
Bamlanivimab, and also highlighted early lab studies indicating "limited
reduction in neutralisation by antibodies".
It stressed, though, that "real-world impacts" on
the effectiveness of vaccines against the variant for instance "may be
limited".
WHO said the spread of B.1.617, alongside other more
transmittable variants, appeared to be one of several factors fuelling India's
dramatic surge in new cases and deaths.
India - a country of 1.3 billion people - is the world's
second-most infected after the United States with nearly 23 million Covid-19
cases, and is currently recording more than 300,000 new cases and close to
4,000 deaths each day.
The new surge in cases has ravaged major cities, including
the capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai, pushing hospitals to breaking
point and leading to severe shortages in oxygen and beds.
"WHO found that resurgence and acceleration of Covid-19
transmission in India had several potential contributing factors, including
increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially
increased transmissibility," it said.
It also pointed to "several religious and political
mass gathering events which increased social mixing; and, under-use of and
reduced adherence to public health and social measures".
"The exact contributions of each of these factors on
increased transmission in India are not well understood."
WHO stressed that so far, only 0.1 percent of positive Covid
tests in India had been genetically sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID
database to identify the variant in question.
By the end of April, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 accounted for
21 and seven percent respectively of all sequenced samples from India, it said.
In addition, other more contagious variants are also
spreading in the country, including B.1.1.7, which was first detected in
Britain.
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