Coronavirus live update: New Covid strain for Nigeria, make we dey worried?
No be news again say some kontris including Nigeria don discover "new variant" or "new strain" of coronavirus wey don dey cause panic as nobody know if e go worse pass di one wey dey before.
Di oga pata pata for di Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Chigwe Ihekweazu on Thursday announce say dem find new variant of di virus during sequencing of di virus by di Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), for Redeemers University in Ede, Osun State. But he say di new variant of Covid-19 wey dem find no dey similar to di ones for UK and South Africa. BBC Health correspondent James Gallagher wey dey follow di virus tori say im get one simple rule to make sense of dis new variant or new strain of coronavirus stories. He explain say changes na normal levels for virus. Most of di time, e no dey mean anything and sometimes di virus dey change to make di infection serious and oda times di new variant dey die on im own. E neva get any serious evidence wey show say di new variant of coronavirus - dem discover for south-east England fit easily catch pipo, cause more serious symptoms or no make di vaccine work But e get two reasons why scientists still dey chook eye well-well for di mata. Di first reason na because di levels of di variant dey high for places wey get higher cases of di infection. Dis na warning sign, although pipo fit look am in two ways. Di virus fit change to begin spread fast and many pipo go become infected. But variants fit also get lucky break as e go dey infect di right people at di right time. Dem go also need take experiments for laboratory to sabi if dis new variant dey quick spread pass di oda ones. Di oda issue wey scientists dey reason na how di virus take change. "E get surprisingly large number of mutations, plenty pass wetin we expect, and few of dem dey interesting," Prof Nick Loman from di COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium tell dis reporter. E get two notable sets of mutations. Both of dem dey inside spike protein, wey be di key di viruses dey use enta our body cells to infect am. Di mutation N501 dey change di most important part of di spike, wey dem sabi as "receptor-binding domain". Dis na where di spike dey make im first contact wit di surface of our body cells. Any changes wey make am dey easier for virus to enta our body don give am power be that. Di other mutation - H69/V70 deletion - don occur several times before, including famously in infected mink. Di worry na say di antibodies from di blood of survivors no get power to attack that variant of virus. Again, e go take more laboratory studies to really understand wetin dey go on. Prof Alan McNally, from di University of Birmingham, say "We know variant dey but we no sabi wetin e mean biologically. "E still dey too early to to know how important e fit be or not". Mass vaccination will put a different kind of pressure on the virus because it will have to change in order to infect people who have been immunised Mutations to di spike protein don lead to questions about di vaccine because di three leading jabs - Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford - all train di immune system to attack di spike. However, di body dey learn to attack multiple parts of di spike. Dis na why health officials dey convinced say di vaccine go work against dis variant. Dis na virus wey start from animals before e begin infect pipo around a year ago. Since den e dey get anoda form like two times a month - take one sample today and compare am wit di first ones from Wuhan in China and you go see around 25 mutations wey dey different. Coronavirus still dey come out in different combinations of mutations to properly nail infecting humans. Dis kain thing don happun before: Di emergence and global dominance of another variant (G614) is seen by many as the virus getting better at spreading. But soon mass vaccination go give di virus another kain level of pressure wey go make am change to fit infect pipo wey don collect immunization.