A cancer research company, Yemaachi Biotech, has identified two new variants of the Covid-19 virus which they say is of much concern.
In a Twitter post, they revealed that the two variants, B.1 and B.1.525 have been in circulation in Ghana since March 2020.
The B.1 variant, first identified in Morocco and Algeria, has been linked to increased transmissibility.
According to Dr Yaw Bediako, an immunologist and Research Fellow at the West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana, the B.1 variant has not shown any sign of being able to breach the vaccine-induced immunity.
“Currently there is no evidence that this variant is capable of evading vaccine-induced immunity. We must keep vaccinating at a high rate to minimise the likelihood that such a variant will emerge,” he said.
However, concerning the B.1.525 variant which was first identified in Nigeria, data gathered at the research center showed it is more prevalent in the Northern and Western Regions of Ghana.
It added that the variant has mutations that may allow the virus to partly evade the immune system.
Explaining further, Public Health Expert and Adjunct Professor at the New York University, Nana Kofi Quakyi, said “the implication here is that if you previously had Covid-19, the variant may be able to get around the antibodies your body produced in response to the infection. So you can get reinfected. We don’t yet have data on how this particular variant responds to the different vaccines.”
Prof. Quakyi stated that the identification of these new variants was “a reminder of the critical importance of broad, regular genomic surveillance for SARSCoV2 variants in Covid-19 patients.”
Our SARS-CoV-2 variant dashboard has been updated with the latest sequencing data. We have identified another variant of concern, B.1, in the samples from Ghana. pic.twitter.com/KS67vlxPKb
— Yemaachi Biotech (@YemaachiBio) March 17, 2021
He, thus, called on the government to invest more money towards that effort to “expand its scope and frequency because the information it provides is so important for the vaccine drive.”
He added: “We really need to double down on infection control, especially enforcement of limits on social gatherings!” and called for a media briefing on the new variants soon.
In addition to the B.1 variant (Morocco/Algeria), @WACCBIP_UG and @YemaachiBio have detected the B.1.525 (Nigeria) variant in Ghana.
— Nana Kofi Quakyi, MPH (@nkquakyi) March 17, 2021
We really need to double down on infection control, especially enforcement of limits on social gatherings! https://t.co/ecunK74loa
“Those briefings are a core part of risk communication, and they should be scheduled/frequent. Detection of new variants should be an obvious prompt to hold one,” he said in a Twitter post.