Journal of Perioperative & Critical Intensive Care Nursing
Open Access

Does Mutations Have Led to the Coranavirus Variants that Has Cause Concern?

Sanjay Kumar Dabhi^{* *}Correspondence: Sanjay Kumar Dabhi, Assistant Professor, Govt. College of Nursing, New Civil Hospital, India, Tel: 9824961594, Email:

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Introduction

As Covid-19 vaccines start being rolled out in several countries, a new strain of the coronavirus discovered in Britain has sparked panic globally. The strain, which is said to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original, has already forced several countries to shut their borders or ban travel with the UK and has sowed fears of further economic disruptions. The fear of the emergence of a new strain of corona has created new tensions and worries in the world. Concern has also increased because there is a possibility of the rapid spread of this alleged new type of epidemic. The question is whether the apprehensions, anxieties, panic-tense situations are real or blank is imaginary. Whatever the situation, the world needs to be vigilant and careful. Just as we fought the Corona epidemic and defeated it, in the same way, the new form of Corona will also have to be defeated with full morale, patience, determination and restraint, somewhere our fear, tension and cheeky fantasies are the reason for the rise of this epidemic [1]. Amid concerns about new variants of SARS-CoV-2 that is spreading and growing rapidly will make the world again stand still from its axis. Last week, the new SARS-CoV-2 variant was revealed to be the reason behind the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases in the South and East England. It is being referred to as VUI (Variant under Investigation) [2]. It is thought the variant either emerged in a patient in the UK or has been imported from a country with a lower ability to monitor corona virus mutations. The variant is unusually highly mutated. The most likely explanation is the variant has emerged in a patient with a weakened immune system that was unable to beat the virus. Instead their body became a breeding ground for the virus to mutate [3]. Viruses often acquire small changes of a letter or two in their genetic alphabet just through normal evolution. A slightly modified strain can become the most common one in a country or region just because that’s the strain that first took hold there or because “super spreader” events helped it become entrenched. A bigger worry is when a virus mutates by changing the proteins on its surface to help it escape from drugs or the immune system. Three things are coming together that mean it is attracting attention: It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus It has mutations that affect part of the virus likely to be important. Some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells. All of these come together to build a case for a virus that can spread more easily. However, we do not have absolute certainty. New strains can become more common simply by being in the right place at the right time - such as London, which had only tier two restrictions until recently [4,5]. This is the first global crisis in true sense. And we all need to be prepared to pay our bit of cost.

Conclusion

Variations to the virus are nothing new, and experts say the novel corona virus does not mutate as much as influenza, meaning it is less likely that a vaccine would need to be developed every year to keep up with the new strains. There is no evidence to suggest that it does, although this will need to be monitored. However, just increasing transmission would be enough to cause problems for hospitals. If the new variant means more people are infected more quickly, that would in turn lead to more people needing hospital treatment. The whole world are working on different level s of vaccine trials but right now we have only one option that is infection prevention and control strategies to prevent or limit transmission of COVID-19 among public and health care workers (WHO) 1. Ensuring triage, early recognition & sources control. (isolation patient with suspected covid-19. 2. Applying standard precautions for all patients and HCWs. 3. Implementing empirical additional precautions(droplets and contact and whenever applicable airborne precautions) 4. Implementing administrative controls. 5. Using environmental and engineering controls.

References

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/simply-put-decoding-the-virus-variant-7114202/
2. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20201221-explainer-is-new-coronavirus-variant-cause-for-concern