The variant was discovered in bats near the Russian national park Sochi. In the study published on the research platform Plos Pathogens, the researchers write that the virus has the same property as the known coronavirus (sars-Cov-2), which led to the pandemic. The virus can enter human cells. In addition, it was resistant to current vaccines. Immunologist Gunnveig Grødeland. Photo: Ola Sæther – What they have found is a new virus that has the potential to cause disease in humans at some later point in time. That’s what vaccine researcher Gunnveig Grødeland says. – I think we shouldn’t be stressed by that, she adds. May have protection – The threat they raise is primarily the possibility that this could become a combination virus. That’s what immunologist Anne Spurkland says about the discovery in Russia. If the Sars-Cov-2 virus infects between humans and bats, it can mix with other viruses already present in bats. Then a new corona variant may arise, against which the antibodies we have received after the pandemic may not work. Immunologist Anne Spurkland. Photo: Heidi Klokk Spurkland emphasizes that the researchers have only studied changes in a small part of the newly discovered virus; in the tip (the spike protein): – That’s when I don’t get too worried, because as long as most of a new combination virus is Sars-Cov-2, and only the tip is changed, we have built up immunity. If most of the virus is known to the body, you can still get an infection, but you will not necessarily become seriously ill. – So we probably have an immunity at the bottom which means that it is not as bad as when this started two years ago. She believes that the virus must cause quite a few more things to happen than just the virus entering the body before this can become a serious lung disease. Reminder – For me, this is a reminder that bats are a reservoir of viruses, including coronaviruses, which can potentially cause infection in humans and new epidemics and pandemics, says Spurkland. Assistant director of health Espen Rostrup Nakstad. Photo: Gunhild Hjermundrud / Gunhild Hjermundrud Although the study warns that the virus could become a threat to the world’s public health, Gunnveig Grødeland points out that there are many other viruses in animals that in theory can make people sick, but that very few of them actually end up stop doing it. Assistant director of health Espen Rostrup Nakstad also points out that there are hundreds of similar coronaviruses in nature. Among other things, different variants have been found in bats in China, Thailand and Africa. – Only a few of them have been shown to make humans and other mammals sick, for example the Sars-Cov-2 virus that caused the corona pandemic, he writes in an email to news. New pandemics must be expected According to Spurkland, the study fits with what the public health authorities have already said. We have to assume that there will be new variants of corona, which will cause new waves of infection in the years to come. – It would be very unwise if the world community stopped taking an interest in the coronavirus. – I hope we have learned that someone should follow along, and research must be funded. Grødeland also believes that research into viruses and the immune system is the way out: – The important thing to draw from this article is that we must establish the knowledge needed, so that we can meet the viruses that come, when they come.
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New coronavirus that can infect humans discovered in bats – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
