By Ricardo Brito
BRAZIL (Reuters) – Brazilian researchers have identified the new coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa by a woman who contracted COVID-19 for the second time, saying it is the first case in the world .
There have been other cases of re-infection in Brazil, and the South African variant has been detected earlier, but the infection with this mutation of the virus is apparently a first, researchers said.
The case involves a 45-year-old woman from the northeastern state of Bahia, researchers from the D’Or Research and Teaching Institute (IDOR) said after performing a genetic sequence of her viral infection.
“This mutation was recently identified in Rio de Janeiro, but it is the first time in the world that SARS-CoV-2 has been associated with reinfection,” Bruno Solano, who led the study, said in a statement.
“In the genetic sequence of the virus that occurs in the second case, we observed the mutation E484K, which is a mutation that was originally identified in South Africa and which has caused a lot of concern in the medical field, as it affects the action of antibodies against the virus, ”said Solano.
The findings of the study are expected to be published in the medical journal The Lancet. A case report (https://bit.ly/39iJCnS) was published Wednesday before peer review on the Preprints.org website.
Researchers said the woman, who lived in the city of Salvador, was infected twice: first on May 20 and then again on October 26. Her symptoms were more intense the second time around, researchers reported.
Brazil gets the second deadliest coronavirus outbreak to the United States, with more than 200,000 deaths and 8 million confirmed cases. Right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, who has reduced the severity of the highly contagious disease, is being criticized for responding slowly to the health crisis.
The evolution of the coronavirus has expressed concern that certain mutations may evade the virus against previous infections or vaccines.
There is so far no strong evidence to suggest that one of the many variants circulating in the world is different enough to not recognize the immune system one after meeting another one.
Cases of re-infection are suspected to occur because humans do not have enough immune protection from the first infection.
Preliminary results from a laboratory study released on Thursday awaiting peer review showed that the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE is likely to remain effective against the new highly transmissible variants discovered in the UK and South Africa is.