Next Covid-19 variant to watch like a hawk: the highly transmissible Lambda

South Africa is buckling under the weight of the Delta variant that has fuelled the Covid-19 third wave, but other countries are now turning their attention to Lambda — said by some experts to be even more transmissible than Delta.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Lambda variant was first detected in Peru but quickly spread to between 27 and 30 countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom.

At present, genome sequence experts in South Africa have not flagged its presence in the country. The WHO has it pegged as a "variant of interest" — as opposed to a "variant of concern" — but this could change quickly as scientists are alarmed by its unusual mutations.

It has a “unique pattern of seven mutations in the spike protein that the virus uses to infect human cells”, the Financial Times reported, and “researchers are particularly intrigued by one mutation called L452Q, which is similar to the L452R mutation believed to contribute to the high infectiousness of the Delta variant”.

Peruvian microbiologist Pablo Tsukayama told the Financial Times that in December last year it showed up in one in 200 cases in that country. By March this year, that figure was up to 50% of all cases and currently it is at 80%.

Only a handful of cases of the Lambda variant have been detected in the UK so far, but in other countries where it’s been spotted, like Peru’s neighbour Chile, it has quickly risen to account for almost a third of cases.

Last month, the WHO named Lambda as number seven on the list of "variants of interest", while Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta remain on the "variants of concern" list.

The jury is still out on whether it will make impotent some of the vaccines being administered across the globe. Researchers say its unusual set of mutations might render it capable of neutralising antibodies, but more research is needed.

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