For a year and a half, the world has been in the midst of one of the most serious health crises in history. So far, Covid-19 has caused 219 million cases and has caused 4.55 million deaths. But although vaccines are already available to reduce the chances of hospitalization, it does not mean that everything has been resolved. One of the biggest problems is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has shown a tendency to mutation.
From the above, multiple variants of the pathogen have been generated. Although most are not drastic, others do completely change their structure. As a result, it becomes more infectious and may even decrease the effectiveness of immunizations.
What is a variant of the virus?
Given the above, analyzes and investigations are constantly carried out to identify any type of change that may occur. This is also useful for immunizations that are just in development. The goal is to make them as efficient as possible against this new disease.
For its part, one of the aspects in which more attention should be paid is the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Its simplest definition is that it is a set of mutations that make it different from the original. In addition, to be considered within this category, it must cause an impact on public health: greater transmissibility, changes in the immune response and others.
A few months ago the World Health Organization (WHO) made the decision to establish a risk classification. To date, it is made up of two items where the variants that have proven to be the most dangerous have been placed.
In this sense, although initially the variants were named by their scientific name or country where they first appeared, later a change was made. To avoid misunderstandings or confusion they were renamed with the letters of the Greek alphabet.
New update
At the beginning there were 11 variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that were included but a couple of days ago the WHO made an update. It was all due to the incorporation of the Mu mutation in the category “of concern”. Although its potential danger is recognized, there are still not enough elements to prove it. More studies are needed to identify whether it should increase in rank.
For now we share the updated list. Now there are 12 variants considered as the most dangerous in the world and those that are constantly monitored to analyze their progress and development.
Variants of concern
- Alpha – B.1.1.7 – Released in the UK.
- Beta – B.1.351 – Appeared in South Africa.
- Gamma – P.1 – Appeared in Brazil.
- Delta – B.1.617.2 – Appeared in India.
Variants of interest
- Epsilon – B.1.427 / B.1.429 – Released in the United States.
- Eta – B.1.525 – No defined origin.
- Theta – P.3 – Appeared in the Philippines.
- Iota – B.1.526 – Appeared in the United States.
- Kappa – B.1.617.1 – Appeared in India.
- Lambda – C.37 – Appeared in Peru.
- Zeta – P.2 – Appeared in Brazil.
- Mu – B.1.621 – Appeared in Colombia.