The Lambda lineage: Facts on the new strain of Sars Cov 2 virus
In the last few months, the Covid pandemic has continued to threaten the world with new, mutated, and more lethal strains being reported now and then. Adding to the already existing woes, scientists have warned about another emerging strain, Lambda.
The Lambda variant has now been found in 29 different countries, seven of them in Latin America and it is the dominant strain in Peru.
As reports about the already dominating Delta strain continue to create havoc across countries, a more recently identified lineage, labeled as a variant of interest by WHO on 15 June 2021, Lambda, has taken the world by storm. In a recent statement, WHO has already affirmed that "lambda has been associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time concurrent with increased Covid-19 incidence" and that more investigations would be carried out into the variant.
What is Lambda?
The lambda virus, scientifically denoted as lineage C.37 or the 'Andean' variant, has developed novel mutations within the receptor-binding domain, specifically L452Q and F490S, in the spike protein and has been noted as the 7th variant of interest. Researchers are attributing this mutation as the cause behind its increased transmissibility and have highlighted an increase in susceptibility to re-infection or a reduction in the protection provided by current vaccines. According to a recent pre-print research report, a two-fold increase in infectivity has been identified with Lambda. Yet another study by researchers in Chile has reported that C.37 has greater infectivity than the earlier Alpha and Gamma variants.
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