The Ministry of Health has detected the first six cases of the Californian variant in Spain, B.1.429. This is reflected in the latest update of the in which it indicates that the impact they may have on Public Health is still unknown. It is a variant that has been baptized by American scientists as the devil.
What are the variants of Covid-19 and how many have arrived in Spain
The government agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that . As the virus infects humans, it suffers errors and mutations in the genetic code as it replicates. These changes produce new variants that may disappear or persist.
This is the case of the British variant, B.1.1.7, which is dominant in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Israel, and which is characterized by its rapid replacement of the other circulating variants due to its high transmissibility and a possible increase in lethality. From the South African variant, B.1.351, which is related to increased transmissibility, reduced neutralization of mono and polyclonal sera, and reduced vaccine effectiveness. Or the Brazilian variant, P.1, in which a reduction in neutralizing antibody titers in vaccinated sera has been observed.
The British variant is the one that is most present in Spain, but with a disparate distribution throughout the territory. While in Cantabria or Catalonia it represents more than 76% of the cases, in La Rioja there is none. In the Balearic Islands it represents 65.5% and in Asturias, 64.3%; they are followed by Galicia (53.3%); Navarra, (52.5%); Andalusia (51.1%); Madrid (42.7%); Murcia (38%); Castile-La Mancha (31.8%); Valencian Community 29.4%; Castile and Leon (14.3%); Aragon (12.1%); Basque Country (4%) and Melilla (1.9%).
Regarding the rest of the most important variants, 54 cases of the South African and 17 cases of the Brazilian have been detected. However, the document prepared by the CDC also focuses on other important mutations in the world that have been detected in Spain. Thus, two cases of the Rio de Janeiro variant, P.2, one case of the Nigerian variant, B.1.525, and six cases in a random screening of the Californian variant, B.1.429, were recorded. In addition, the Ministry of Health keeps three others under surveillance: the one in New York, another originating in Uganda and the last one expanded in Portugal, of which there are no positives in our country.
What is known about the Californian variant of the virus nicknamed ‘the demon’
A recent study by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has highlighted that the variant of the coronavirus that originated in California would be as contagious as those in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. “The demon is already here,” Charles Chiu, who led the team of UCSF scientists in a wide-ranging analysis of the new variant, told the newspaper.
First discovered in California in December, new evidence warns it may be more contagious, making patients sicker, and current Covid-19 vaccines may be less effective. In the same sense, the newspaper reports that this mutation of the virus is at least 40% more effective in infecting human cells than the previous variants, infected people produce a viral load twice as high as that of other variants and can evade the system immune better than other variants.
These new investigations are becoming known at the time that Los Angeles County has been the first in the United States to exceed 20,000 deaths from covid-19, with the Latino community with the highest mortality rate.
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