Is there really a Nepal variant of Covid-19?
When Portugal was recently removed from Englands green list for travel, the UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, blamed it on a new coronavirus variant. Theres a sort of Nepal mutation of the Indian variant which has been detected, he said in a recent interview. This was the first time most people had heard of a Nepal mutation. The Nepal variant turns out to be the Delta variantthe one first detected in India and currently making up over 90% of cases in the UKplus a mutation known as K417N. The K417N mutation is in the spike protein (the mushroom-shaped projection on the surface of the coronavirus that helps it to enter human cells). The first five cases in England were sequenced on April 26, according to a recent PHE report, and were contacts of travellers to Nepal and Turkey. At the latest count, there are 36 cases of the Nepal variant in England. Most of the cases are in younger people, with two cases in people 60 or over. Out of the 36 cases, 11 were travel-associated (six travellers and five cases among contacts of travellers). The vaccination status of 27 of the 36 recorded Nepal variant cases were known, and the records showed that 18 cases were in people who werent vaccinated. Only two cases were in people who had received both vaccine doses and had more than two weeks between the second dose before being tested positive. No deaths from this variant have been recorded. Despite the low number of cases of the Nepal variant, what has got people concerned is that it is the combination of the highly successful Delta variant (which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in India) plus the K417N mutation, which is found in the beta variantthe variant first detected in South Africa, and gamma, the variant first detected in Brazil. Although the beta variant doesnt appear to be anywhere near as transmissible as the Delta variant (look how quickly it took over from the alpha variant in the UK), it is betas K417N mutation that is believed to help the virus dodge neutralising antibodiesa vital part of our immune systems defences. This means it can make vaccines and antibody drugs less effective, and increase the risk of reinfection, as happened on a large scale in Manaus, Brazil, with the gamma variant. So you can see why PHE is keeping a close eye on the situation. However, without epidemiological and laboratory evidence that the Nepal variant is more transmissible, virulent or better able to evade vaccines than the Delta variant, say, the Nepal variant will remain off the worry listat least for now. How this will play out in the next few weeks and months, though, is anyones guess. But one thing is sure: if Delta Plus K417N does join the World Health Organization or PHEs list of variants of concern, it will not be called the Nepal variant. It will be designated a Greek letter. Variant names that stigmatise countries are being phased out, but perhaps Shapps didnt get the memo. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.