By News Desk  @bactiman63

The Statens Serum Institut in Denmark reported today on the first case of virus variant B.1.351 / 501Y, which was originally detected in South Africa.

Image/CDC

The Danish covid-19 case of B.1.351 / 501Y was found on Zealand and is associated with a trip to Dubai. The variant has both the 501Y mutation, which is associated with greater infectivity, and the 484K mutation, which may lead to a decrease in sensitivity to the protective antibodies in patients who have recovered from COVID-19 infection.

At the same time, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has found four covid-19 cases with another virus variant, which only has the E484K mutation in the Spike protein, which as mentioned before may be associated with reduced sensitivity to the protective antibodies.

“We have strengthened the monitoring of virus variants so that we can closely follow the development in variant B.1.1.7, which also has the 501Y mutation, but not the 484K mutation. At the same time, this means that we are discovering several other variants that have international attention, such as B.1.351 / 501Y. It has also been shown to be more contagious just like B.1.1.7 ”, says SSI’s Acting Technical Director Tyra Grove Krause.

The B.1.1.7 variant currently accounts for 3.6% of all the positive covid-19 samples sequenced in Denmark. However, it is expected that the incidence will increase in the coming weeks and months. How much depends on how well you manage to check the contact number.

The Danish case of B.1351 / 501Y has been found by SSI’s general sequencing monitoring. It takes place in collaboration with Aalborg University and now covers all PCR-detected cases of infection with a response time of now less than a week.

The Danish Agency for Patient Safety (STPS) performs intensive infection detection and containment of the detected cases with variants that require special attention.


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