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What is the News?
The World Health Organization has classified the B.1.617 (variant first identified in India in 2020) as a Variant of Concern(VoC).
Variant Classifications: Variants of a virus have one or more mutations that differentiate it from the other variants that are in circulation.
Types: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies variants into three categories:
Variant of Interest(VOI):
A variant is classified as Variant of Interest, based on the following possible attributes:
- Firstly, Associated with changes to receptor binding
- Secondly, Reduced neutralization by antibodies generated against previous infection or vaccination
- Thirdly, Reduced efficacy of treatments
- Fourthly, Potential diagnostic impact
- Lastly, A predicted increase in transmissibility or disease severity.
Variant of Concern(VoC):
A variant is classified as Variant of Concern if there is any evidence of:
- Increase in transmissibility
- More severe disease (e.g. increased hospitalizations or deaths)
- Significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination
- Reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines or diagnostic detection failures.
Note: The most frequent Variant of Concern(VOC) named by WHO by their geography of origin are
- ‘U.K. variant’ for B.1.1.7;
- ‘South Africa variant’ for B.1.351;
- ‘Brazil variant’ for P.1. and
- ‘Indian Variant’ for B.1.617
Variants of High Consequence
- This is classified when there is clear evidence that prevention measures or medical countermeasures do not work on curbing the virus compared to other variants.
- Currently, there are no SARS-CoV-2 variants that rise to the level of high consequence.
Source: The Hindu
