Geneva: World Health Organization has said it is closely monitoring the new coronavirus variant of the name mu, adding that ‘types of concern’ have shown signs of possible resistance to vaccines.
In its weekly epidemiological update published Tuesday, WHO Warned that the variant is becoming increasingly prevalent in Colombia and Ecuador.
The WHO said Mu was first identified in Colombia in January 2021, and since then, there have been “sporadic reports” of cases and outbreaks in South America and Europe.
While the global prevalence of mu in sequenced COVID-19 cases is less than 0.1 percent, its prevalence “has steadily increased” in Colombia and Ecuador, where it now accounts for about 39 percent and 13 percent of infections, respectively.
The agency said the report on the prevalence of the variant should be “interpreted with due consideration” given the low sequencing capacity of most countries.
Mu is the fifth type of interest to be monitored by the WHO since March.
It has several mutations that suggest it may be more resistant to vaccines, the health agency warned, but stressed that further research would be needed to confirm this.
Preliminary data shows reduced effectiveness of vaccines “as observed” Beta var”. WHO said it would “monitor the epidemiology of mu var in South America, particularly with co-circulation”. delta Version… for change”.
As of 29 August, more than 4,500 sequences (3,794 B.1.621 sequences and 856 B.1.621.1 sequences), genome sequences, virus samples taken from patients had been analyzed in the past four weeks. Named as Mu. The sequences are used to track how it moves through a population, on an open-source genome repository called GISAID.
However, this figure will be affected by both the sequencing capacity, surveillance and the total number of cases in an area.
In its weekly epidemiological update published Tuesday, WHO Warned that the variant is becoming increasingly prevalent in Colombia and Ecuador.
The WHO said Mu was first identified in Colombia in January 2021, and since then, there have been “sporadic reports” of cases and outbreaks in South America and Europe.
While the global prevalence of mu in sequenced COVID-19 cases is less than 0.1 percent, its prevalence “has steadily increased” in Colombia and Ecuador, where it now accounts for about 39 percent and 13 percent of infections, respectively.
The agency said the report on the prevalence of the variant should be “interpreted with due consideration” given the low sequencing capacity of most countries.
Mu is the fifth type of interest to be monitored by the WHO since March.
It has several mutations that suggest it may be more resistant to vaccines, the health agency warned, but stressed that further research would be needed to confirm this.
Preliminary data shows reduced effectiveness of vaccines “as observed” Beta var”. WHO said it would “monitor the epidemiology of mu var in South America, particularly with co-circulation”. delta Version… for change”.
As of 29 August, more than 4,500 sequences (3,794 B.1.621 sequences and 856 B.1.621.1 sequences), genome sequences, virus samples taken from patients had been analyzed in the past four weeks. Named as Mu. The sequences are used to track how it moves through a population, on an open-source genome repository called GISAID.
However, this figure will be affected by both the sequencing capacity, surveillance and the total number of cases in an area.
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