The South African variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is one of the variants of the coronavirus that scientists are concerned about. What do we know so far about the South African variant? Is it more contagious and more deadly? Is there a vaccine for the South African variant of the coronavirus?
The South African variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was first detected in South Africa on December 18, 2022. This variant spread very quickly to other countries and continents. Its presence was also found in Poland near Suwałki.
South African variant of the coronavirus - what we know so far
The South African variant of the coronavirus is marked with the symbol 501.V2. This variant is distinguished by 20 different mutations. As many as 9 of them lead to changes in the amino acid sequence in the S protein, located in the coronavirus envelope (in the form of spikes).
Outside South Africa, the presence of this variant was found, inter alia, in in Great Britain, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Austria. in the Czech Republic and Poland. The findings so far show that the South African variant is more contagious than other variants of the coronavirus. So far, there is no data on whether this variant causes a more severe course of COVID-19 or significantly increases the death rate from infection.
South African variant of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine
However, what worries scientists the most is a mutation called E484K. This mutation makes the South African variant less recognized by antibodies, which may in turn make it more resistant to vaccines.
Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is two-thirds less effective against this variant than against other variants of the coronavirus. The researchers' observations suggest that the remaining vaccines are also less effective. However, researchers agree that vaccines can be quickly modified, and this will be possible especially in the case of mRNA vaccines.