The Covid-19 virus that is doing the rounds in Bengal is increasingly being found to be an indigenous triple-mutation (B.1.618). This is only the second one identified from India after the double mutant type (B.1.617), according to a report published by the Times Of India.
Scientist has dubbed it as the “Bengal Strain”, which is said that it might be more infective and may be capable of escaping a person’s immune surveillance, even if that person was earlier exposed to a virus without this mutation, and even if vaccinated.
There has been no scientific research yet to either corroborate or dismiss the fears. ‘Triple-mutant is immune escape variant.
In an exclusive interview with HealthWire Media, Scientist Sreedhar Chinnaswamy of the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, who along with his team are actively involved in the project called ‘Bengal Strain’, explains the crucial parts about this mutant and the current situation of coronavirus in India.
Sreedhar Chinnaswamy said, “This new mutant is more like a lineage which is found in Bengal sequences but there is nothing called third wave or triple mutant, therefore, we can probably say that this is the second wave only.”
“We cannot call it a ‘Bengal Strain’. I think it is still a lineage. Like a few months back in Maharashtra there was something called double mutant which was found, in which there were mutations E.4.84Q and L.452R. These were the mutants that were found more in the sequences starting with 5 percent to 20 percent to 60 percent, and this was a lineage which was named B.1.617 or double mutant. And in the same way, this is also a lineage which has been called a triple mutant.”
“Most of these sequences have emerged from the West Bengal area that too in the month of February and March,” said Sreedhar Chinnaswamy.
Watch the full Interaction here:
https://youtu.be/wld3Yw5_xlo
