Talk about the appearance of a super strain is still a fortune-telling, although this cannot be ruled out. This was reported to RBC by the head of the laboratory of especially dangerous infections of the Federal Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine (FRC FTM), professor of virology Alexander Chepurnov.
So he commented on the statement of the doctor of medical sciences, biosafety expert Nikolai Durmanov about the possibility of the appearance in any country of the world of a super strain of coronavirus, requiring new methods of treatment and prevention.
Chepurnov noted that the virus is already moving towards major changes compared to the original Wuhan, “we have already reached the gamut.” Coronavirus variants are designated by letters of the Greek alphabet. Experts identify the four most significant mutations of the coronavirus: alpha (British strain), beta (South African), gamma (Brazilian) and delta variant (Indian). According to him, the mutation leads not only to a change in immunological recognition, the rate of uptake of new cells also changes, which affects the rate of spread of the virus between people and within the body.
“That is, as long as I see a slow drift, and sooner or later it may really move to this state, one day it will be necessary to change vaccines, and when it is absolutely necessary, and this is already happening, to change the treatment strategy, and so on,” he said.
It is impossible to exclude the emergence of new strains, “as well as to assert that they will certainly appear,” said Alexei Agranovsky, a virologist, professor at Moscow State University, doctor of biological sciences, to RBC.
“The essential thing is that new strains arise when there is a lot of virus in the population. To make it small, you need to be vaccinated – simultaneously (or at least quickly) and massively. We will not do this – we can expect bad consequences, ”he said.
According to Chepurnov, now it is necessary to think about a completely new strategy to combat the virus, to actively work on vaccine technologies, as well as therapies.
“The virus adapts to live with opposition and begins to change so as not to leave us. There is no need to be complacent about what is, we need completely new technologies, in which it is easier and easier to carry out vaccine updates in parallel with the ongoing changes in proteins, as the consequences of mutations. And we need to think very hard about the means of therapy, that is, direct antiviral drugs, very little attention is paid, ”he added.
Earlier, the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that the sharp increase in the incidence in many countries is due to inequality in the distribution of vaccines and constant mutations of the virus.
Over the past 24 hours, 24,818 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Russia. For the third day in a row, more than 700 deaths have been recorded.
