When the first shipment of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine arrived in South Africa this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed the shipment as a means of “turning the tide” against the virus.
But the growth of a dangerous strain of the coronavirus has confused the country’s response to the pandemic and has sparked global fears that mutant strains may render the current generation of vaccines ineffective.
“What we’re about to see is a game of cat and mouse between virus changes and vaccine manufacturers who need to change their vaccines quickly,” said Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
“So the lesson is that we have to keep the numbers low, so that we don’t see more and more variants popping up, making vaccination more difficult.”
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The first signs of trouble came in October, when doctors noticed a worrying rise in the number of cases, particularly around Nelson Mandela Bay, the eastern end of South Africa’s picturesque stretch of coastline known as ‘the garden route’.
Within five weeks, scientists had identified a variant with troubling mutations in the spike protein, the part of the virus that allows it to enter human cells. Current Covid-19 vaccines target the spike protein, but the mutations can make antibodies produced by the vaccines less effective. The mutations can also make people who previously had coronavirus more susceptible to reinfection.
“People who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and who have generated antibodies to that virus may no longer recognize this new variant of the virus because of the changes in the spike protein,” said Richard Lessells, a protagonist. researcher at the genetic sequencing lab, KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, who identified the variant.
“That means that this variant may be able to re-infect humans, possibly helping it to spread more efficiently through the population.”
South Africa was the hardest hit country on the continent, suffering a first wave of coronavirus that peaked in July, in the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The government enforced strict lockdown measures, closed borders, enforced curfews and even banned the sale of alcohol to prevent “reckless behavior” caused by drinking.
In late September, the cases were dismissed and the government announced the relaxation of lockdown restrictions, which would reopen the country to tourists and business travelers. This freedom gave the new variant of the virus the space it needed to spread, accelerating a second wave that hit harder and faster than the first.
More than 48,000 South Africans have died from the coronavirus, and the South African variant has been found in more than 40 countries, including the United States.
Health experts warn that global vaccination efforts must be stepped up to prevent more mutations from occurring and more variants from emerging. Another strain that originated independently in Brazil has also shown similar mutations to the South African strain, with the same potential to re-infect people who already had Covid-19.
President Joe Biden last month rejected travel restrictions to ban passengers from South Africa, in an effort to contain the spread of the variant. But with the number of cases still high in other countries and the potential for the third and fourth waves to come, the virus could continue to mutate and resist currently available vaccines.
“We are in a race to get ahead of the virus, reduce transmission, vaccinate everyone in the world before this virus evolves in ways we cannot predict,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a charity for health care. health. in the United Kingdom.
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The mutations have caused a serious setback in South Africa’s vaccine plans. A study of about 2,000 people indicated that the AstraZeneca vaccine is much less effective against the new variant and protects people only 22 percent better than a placebo. The findings prompted the South African government to halt the introduction of the vaccine, which was scheduled to begin the week of February 8.
Instead, the government quickly switched to a different vaccine – a single-dose injection developed by Johson & Johnson, which had been more extensively tested in South Africa and showed better results against the new variant. The rollout began Wednesday with health professionals as part of an “implementation study” that will monitor its effectiveness. Ramaphosa also got the shot.
South Africa then faced the challenge of what to do with the million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that had already arrived in the country and are due to expire at the end of April.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced this week that the government has offered the unused doses to the African Union for distribution to other countries on the continent that have not been hit as hard by the South African variant, saying there will be “ no wasteful and would be fruitless expenses. . “
The government said it has also struck deals on the Pfizer vaccine, although a new lab study has also cast doubt on the effectiveness of that shot against the South African variant, which could give the country even more headaches.
Meanwhile, the Oxford University group that worked with AstraZeneca to develop its vaccine said it would be working on a new version designed to recognize the new variant. The scientist who led the vaccine’s development, Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology, told the BBC that the modified shot could be ready by the fall.