Coronavirus: What is double mutant variant virus and how deadly it can be?
The entire state of Maharashtra has become a hotspot for corona infection. Meanwhile, double mutant variant of coronavirus was found in 20% of the samples taken from there.
In India, the corona infection once again gained momentum from the second week of February. There was an increase of one lakh in the active case in the last 5 days. Meanwhile, another scary thing has been seen. Actually, there have been confirmed to be double mutant variants among the growing corona cases. Now experts are predicting that double mutation can speed up infection.
Double mutant variants confirmed
The Union Health Ministry said that in 18 states of the country, many went on Variants of Concern (VoC). That is, many different forms of the virus were seen. There are also double mutant variants between all these types. Since its discovery during genome sequencing, there is a concern that this is not the reason for the rapid rate increase.
Genome Sequencing by INSACOG shows variants of concern and a Novel variant in India.https://t.co/hs3yAErWJR pic.twitter.com/STHjcMnkMh
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) March 24, 2021
Apprehension being expressed
At present, these variants are found in 20% of the samples sent from Maharashtra for examination. Here, due to the rapid increase in the cases of infection in Maharashtra, it is reasonable to fear that the infection rate is not increasing due to the process of mutation. Although the Health Ministry has not said any such thing at the moment, but it is continuously saying that now there is a need to be more vigilant in the growing cases of infection.
What is double mutant variants
Once you understand the variant that is going on. This is a form of virus whose genome has changed twice. However, changes in the genomic variants of the virus are common. Actually, viruses keep changing their genetic structure continuously to keep themselves effective for a long time so that they cannot be killed. This is the process of survival, in which the virus changes in an attempt to stay alive and make itself stronger. This is exactly the same as we humans also learn and try many new things to improve ourselves. Just the virus also works on this formula.
Increases viral load
Many times the virus becomes weaker than before after mutation. At the same time, this process of mutation makes the virus very dangerous. In such a situation, when they attack a host cell ie any cell in our body, the cell makes thousands of copies of the virus within a few hours. This increases the virus load in the body rapidly and the patient soon reaches a critical stage of the disease.
Right now, health experts are only advising to stay alert and not to leave when not needed. Meanwhile, an attempt was also made to know how many variants have been seen in the country so far. Let me tell you that with the corona infection, a team of experts started working in the country, the purpose of which is to find out about the variants only. It was called the SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG). Under this, 10 national level labs are working to understand the genome sequence of the virus. During this investigation, it was found that 771 variants of the virus have been seen in the country so far. Of these, double mutants have also been shown recently.
Since then, research is going on whether these mutations in the virus are more deadly or contagious. Or can the ability of the vaccine be weakened by this. Let us know that currently the vaccination campaign is in full swing in the country and more than 1 crore people have been given both doses of vaccine. Any new information related to vaccination is constantly being updated on government websites and its information is also being given in hospitals so that vaccination is not hindered in any way.
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