The Brazilian variant of the coronavirus, called P1, is little known, but raises alerts around the world because it is more contagious, which has led several countries to suspend flights from the South American giant, the epicenter of the pandemic.
“Fear is justified, P1 is a more contagious variant and has spread very quickly in Brazil, which is a huge country where the pandemic is out of control,” says microbiologist Natalia Pasternak, director of the Questao Institute of Science.
P1 appeared in December last year in the city of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, but was identified as a new variant only in January, in Japan, to some travelers returning from that region in northern Brazil.
The variant has also been detected in several countries in South America, such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela. It also reached the United States, Canada, Germany and France, which on Monday announced the suspension of flights from Brazil, as well as from other nations.
– Why is it more contagious? –
Like the South African variant, P1 has the E484K mutation, which could cause more infections than the other strains, according to some studies, because it requires more antibodies to resist the virus.
It also has many variations of the Spike protein, through which the virus enters cells to infect them.
“It’s as if he had a key that allows him to open several doors at the same time,” says Jesem Orellana, an Amazon researcher at the Fiocruz Institute.
“And from an epidemiological point of view, the variant can destabilize regions where there is little control of the virus and with little infrastructure, causing the collapse of hospitals,” as happened in Manaus, where dozens of patients died due to lack of oxygen.
“If the Brazilian authorities had been responsible, they would have isolated Manaus, as China did with Wuhan. But instead, they sent patients to other parts of the country, along with their companions, some of them infected with P1,” Orellana laments. .
The Brazilian government “should have even closed the borders to prevent this option from reaching other countries, some of which are poorer, such as Peru,” he added.
– Is it more lethal? –
To date, no study has concluded that P1 is more lethal.
In preliminary investigations, Orellana found that P1 did not increase the mortality rate in Manaus hospitals compared to the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020.
This analysis coincides with two studies published on Tuesday according to which the British version does not lead to more serious cases of Covid-19.
The escalation of deaths caused by covid-19 in Brazil in recent weeks is due to the collapse of hospitals “because this variant is more contagious, but also due to general relaxation” of the population in the face of prevention measures, “tired of quarantine,” adds Orellana.
Preliminary studies have shown that the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac, the most widely used in Brazil, is effective against P1, as well as Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
– How widespread was it in Brazil? –
Variant P1 has spread to almost all of Brazil, although there is a lack of data to measure the percentage responsible for infections in each region.
“Brazil’s genomic surveillance is one of the worst in the world,” in terms of sequencing the new strains, “it’s not for nothing that we discovered P1 almost 60 days later in Japan,” says Orellana.
The uncontrolled circulation of the virus has given rise to new mutations, with variants of the same strain, such as P2, circulating in Rio de Janeiro or P4, recently detected in Belo Horizonte, in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais.
“Brazil has become an outdoor laboratory variant,” Orellana said.
To avoid the circulation of these variants, “the ideal would be to have enough doses for mass vaccination and a blockade at the same time, as England or Israel have done,” adds microbiologist Pasternak.
“But in Brazil we have neither: detention, mainly due to lack of political will,” to which is added the fact that “we do not have enough doses for vaccination,” explains the specialist, emphasizing the “lack of national coordination” in the fight against pandemic by the Jair Bolsonaro government.