What Experts Know About P.1, the Coronavirus Variant Discovered in Brazil
A coronavirus variant discovered in Brazil has caught the eye of public health officials.
The variant, known as B.1.1.28.1 or P.1, was recently confirmed in Minnesota, and is thought to be more infectious due to its large number of mutations. It is not yet clear whether this variant causes more severe illness, but research is being done.
Until more is known, it is crucial to continue following COVID-19 safety guidelines to minimize the spread of the virus.
A coronavirus variant that was discovered in Brazil has caught the eye of public health officials, including Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He told The New York Times that this particular variant has a concerning number of mutations, even moreso than the variant identified in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7, which has spread to more than 20 states.
“The amount of concern that I have between the U.K. variant, and the South African/Brazilian is much, much different,” Dr. Fauci said. The variant that emerged in South Africa, known as B.1.351, has not yet been detected in the U.S.
But Brazil’s variant, known as P.1 (a descendent of the B.1.1.28 lineage), was recently confirmed in Minnesota. In a Jan. 25 news release about the case, the state’s health department said an unidentified patient became ill during the first week of January after returning from a trip to Brazil. The patient is in isolation and epidemiologists are trying to track down details about their contacts.
The initial lineage of the variant was first discovered in four travelers from Brazil who were tested during a routine screening at Haneda airport outside of Tokyo, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The agency has added P.1 to its list of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, signaling that it’s one to watch. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
Back up: What is a COVID-19 variant again?
A variant is a version of SARS-CoV-2 that has developed enough mutations from the original strain of the novel coronavirus “to represent a separate branch on the family tree,” says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
It’s normal for variants to appear with viruses, says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. When viruses replicate their RNA (i.e. genetic makeup) in a host’s cells, they often mutate because errors are made during the process. And when those mutations have staying power and start to spread, they lead to a variant of the virus.
What makes the variant from Brazil different?
This variant has 17 unique mutations, including three in part of the spike protein (the crown-like structure of the virus), which is used to latch onto cells in order to replicate throughout the body, the CDC explains. There are also three deletions from the original virus.
How infectious is this variant?
A recent study is raising brows after researchers detected a cluster of P.1 cases in Manaus, a large city in Brazil, per the CDC. The P.1 variant made up 42% of the test specimens taken from late December, which is notable because about 75% of the local population had already been infected with COVID-19 as of October 2020, the CDC explains.
As a result, it was assumed that many locals had developed immunity to COVID-19. In mid-December, however, the region once again experienced a devastating surge in cases, suggesting either that P.1. is more transmissible or that people who have already had the virus were reinfected.
“What we don’t know at the moment is if this is a type of infection that occurs after immunity wanes, or if people are getting re-infected quickly,” Dr. Adalja says, adding that the Brazilian variant is “very similar to the South African variant. It may be more infectious, but it’s a lot of speculation at the moment.”
John Sellick, D.O., infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo/SUNY in New York, says that the mutations in P.1’s spike protein would imply that it is indeed more infectious, as it would boost the ability of the virus to bind to human cells and replicate quickly.
Does the variant from Brazil cause severe illness?
That’s not clear right now. “There’s no hard scientific data yet,” Dr. Sellick says.
Will the available COVID-19 vaccines be effective against P.1?
To date, both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have been found to be effective against new coronavirus variants, including the U.K. variant. However, the CDC cautions that we are still learning more about the variant from Brazil and how it works in the body. “There is evidence to suggest that some of the mutations in the P.1 variant may affect its transmissibility and [how well it binds to antibodies],” the agency states on its site. This theoretically could affect the virus-fighting abilities of the antibodies acquired through natural infection or vaccination.
Simply put, scientists are waiting on the data. “It is too soon to say how efficacious the currently available vaccines will be against [the P.1.] variant,” says Michelle DallaPiazza, M.D., associate professor at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “We won’t know for sure until more studies are conducted.”
However, Dr. Adalja stresses that vaccines are usually effective on some level against variants, even if the max efficacy decreases a bit. “In general, it’s hard for variants to completely evade a vaccine,” he explains. Some mutations may impact how well the vaccine works, but the COVID-19 vaccines approved so far are so effective that there may be little overall impact, he says. (For example, if a vaccine that has 95% efficacy dips to 90% efficacy against a particular variant, it is absolutely still worth taking.)
Until we know more, now is not the time to let up on well-studied COVID-19 prevention measures: Continue to avoid large gatherings, maintain a six-foot distance from people outside of your household, minimize outings to the grocery store and other confined spaces when possible, wash your hands well and often, and wear a face mask that snugly covers your nose and mouth in public. And when the opportunity becomes available to you, it’s crucial to get vaccinated.
Go here to join Prevention Premium (our best value, all-access plan), subscribe to the magazine, or get digital-only access.
FOLLOW PREVENTION ON INSTAGRAM
You Might Also Like
