SO, WHO BLINKS FIRST

Recent mutations in COVID-19 virus have complicated the fight against the pandemic. Can we win?

- BANJOT KAUR

ONLY THOSE with a propensity to survive will do so. So it is foolish to think that in this war between humans and SARS-COV-2, only humans are getting ready with treatment protocols, prevention measures and vaccines. Being a virus which is far more agile than humans, SARS-COV-2, too, is mutating and changing its infection strategies to survive against all odds.

Scientists say not all mutations are noteworthy. Usually they keep an eye out for changes in the antigen —a molecular structure present on the outside of the pathogen, which the immune system reads to trigger a response against it. Most of the time, the changes are insignificant and at best just create sensational headlines. But scientists get alarmed when they encounter mutations that can make the virus more infectious and aggressive. The first such prominent change in sarscov-2 appeared as early as February 2020, when it displayed a mutation termed “D614G”. The mutation helped the virus spread faster and infect more easily than the one originated in Wuhan, China, but did not change its other properties nor made it more lethal. By June 2020, the strain with D614G mutation had replaced the original one, circulating globally.

The other significant change was in a strain found in minks in Denmark in September 2020. According to the World Health Organization (who), the mutation reduced the capacity of the host's immune system to neutralise the virus. However, it did not spread much; only 12 human cases have been documented with this strain so far, and studies are going on to understand its other impacts.