The Bay Area has another coronavirus variant to compete with.
The Stanford Clinical Virology Lab has identified and confirmed one case of an emerging variant that originated in India through genomic sequencing, Lisa Kim, a spokeswoman for Stanford Health Care, said Sunday. Stanford is investigating seven other suspicions; the location of the confirmed case was not disclosed.
The variant is called the ‘double mutant’ because it carries two mutations in the virus that help it attach itself to cells. This could possibly be responsible for the worrying new increase in cases in India. Kim said it is not yet known whether the variant is more contagious or resistant to antibodies to vaccine.
Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said the variant appears to be more contagious because it accounts for 20% of cases in the severely affected state of Maharashtra. Chin-Hong said business had increased by more than 50% in the past week.
“It also makes sense that it would be more transmissible from a biological perspective, as the two mutations act on the receptor-binding domain of the virus, but so far there have been no official transmission studies,” he said in an email. writing.
Chin-Hong said it is too early to know if the variant is more resistant to vaccine or could cause re-infections, but one of the mutations of the variant is similar to one found in the variant first introduced was detected in Brazil and South Africa, and the other mutation was also found in a variant first detected in California.
“This Indian variant contains for the first time two mutations in the same virus, which were previously seen in separate variants,” he said. ‘Since we know that the domain affected is the part that the virus uses to enter the body, and that the California variant is increasingly resistant to some antibody antibodies, it seems likely that the Indian variant it can do. that too. “
He has so far said no studies have confirmed this. However, Chin-Hong said that it seems that this variant may be more regional as the B.1.1.7 variant originating in the UK is the more dominant tribe in India. And while it is not certain whether the variant is vaccine-resistant, he is ‘optimistic’ that vaccinations will work, given what is known about their effectiveness against the variants of South Africa and California.
The latest discovery adds to the list of worrying variants that have migrated to the US, including the widespread B.1.1.7. variant, which is 50% more contagious. The P.1 strain that originated in Brazil and a variant from South Africa, were both found in the Bay, and both are presumably somewhat resistant to vaccines.
There are many cases throughout the country of the variants of California that are more contagious and potentially vaccine-resistant, and those from New York that are identified in Santa Clara County that are also potentially vaccine-resistant.
Kellie Hwang is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @KellieHwang