It is important to control the infection
Corona infection is on the rise in the country. Earlier it was below three percent but now the infection rate has crossed 13 percent. Recently, newer variants or variants of the corona have increased in different countries, and those that reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine or infect the body's immune system have caused concern.
In this situation, the question now is whether the new type of virus is responsible for the rise in infections in Bangladesh. The question is, how are new types of corona being created through mutations?
During coronavirus replication or reproduction in living cells in animals, the RNA copy process sometimes makes mistakes in some parts of the genome sequence (amino acid format) and new mutants are created when these mistakes are unable to be corrected.
Thus, it is a normal process for the virus to constantly change its form or type. Infections and mortality rates are rising rapidly in several countries due to recent changes in the structure of the corona spike protein.
This is because this spike protein enters the cell at the end of the strong bond of the virus with the skin cell wall in the human body. In the meantime, corona variants have changed in many countries, but only a few have led to alarmingly high rates of infection and death.
The risk of infection and death of the new strain of B1.1.6 identified in the UK is 60 and 30 per cent higher than that of the original coronavirus, respectively. The B.1.1.6 type has a total of 16 mutations, including four delation mutations, including six mutations in the spike protein (E484K, S494P, N501Y, A560D, D614G and P71H) and two locations (H89 / V14E) in H79 / V4P. Gone.
These two deletions change the size of the spike to help the virus infect the body by avoiding certain antibodies. The N501Y mutation transformed the spike protein into a receptor binding domain, where it was replaced by the amino acid asparagine (N) tyrosine (Y). Among the mutations found in Spike, the N501Y mutation increased the risk of the virus attaching to our skin cells, increasing the rate of infection by 60 percent.
In addition, the corona's highly variable S-1 / S-2 furin cleavage site contains another important mutation of the spike, P61H, which is able to increase the ability of the virus to enter and spread to the epithelial cells of the body, including helping to make new spike proteins more efficiently in infected cells.
In addition to the mutations E484K, N501Y and D614G in South Africa's B1.351 and Brazil's P1 type spike proteins, there have been multiple mutations, including K417N. The B1.351 variety and 41 P1 varieties have already spread to 16 countries. Mutations of these two types help the K417N virus to bind more tightly to our body cells and the M464K mutation is able to cause infections by affecting our body's antibodies.
Therefore, these strains are capable of infecting the body by evading antibodies from previous corona infections or corona vaccines, and therefore the Oxford vaccine is only 10 percent effective against the South African B1.351 strain. In addition, the new African species has a 50 percent higher transmission rate.
On the other hand, a new type of corona identified as B.1.529 in New York and B1.429 and B1.426 identified in California are spreading at a relatively fast rate (more than 20 percent). Recently, a higher mutant called N-440K and another highly contagious double mutant, including three new species from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa, have spread to 16 states in India, and it is not uncommon for these species to spread easily from bordering India.
The presence of the highly contagious strain of the UK has already been detected in Bangladesh as in 93 other countries in the world, and experts believe that corona infection is on the rise in the country due to this strain and other new strains of corona. Therefore, it is important to take necessary measures to prevent the entry and spread of new types of corona in the country and to ensure mandatory quarantine of passengers coming from abroad. Emphasis should also be placed on antibody testing, contract tracing and isolation.
It is important to take the necessary steps to quickly identify the most contagious strains by dividing the high, medium and low infectious zones and then sequencing a large number of infected people in the corona or after vaccination.
Therefore, vaccination programs need to be accelerated in order to achieve hard immunity for coronary control. All those who have been vaccinated or not vaccinated should avoid public gatherings, not gather more than 10-12 people in the same group at any place including social events, as well as wear masks and adhere to strict hygiene rules to control the corona infection right now, or the situation is dire. Can be!!!!