Brazil Confirms Circulation of New Coronavirus Variant in Amazon Region

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the largest medical research centre in Latin America, has confirmed the identification and circulation of a new variant of the coronavirus that, according to the researchers, has originated from the amazon rainforest.

It is the same variant that arrived in Japan after four Japanese travellers visited the Brazilian Amazon region and, according to Fiocruz Amazon deputy director of research, Felipe Naveca, presents a series of so-far unpublished mutations.

A technical note points out that the samples analyzed in the Japanese accumulated an “unusual” number of genetic alterations, beyond those observed in the so-called Spike protein and that “resemble the pattern observed” in the variants identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

“If these mutations confer any selective advantage for viral transmissibility, we should expect an increase in the frequency of these viral lineages in Brazil and in the world in the coming months,” says the document.

It also explains that the mutations detected are a “recent phenomenon, probably occurred between December 2020 and January 2021,“ and “maybe representatives of a virus potentially of an emerging lineage in Brazil.”

The simultaneous emergence of new variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, in different parts of the world, suggests “convergent changes in the evolution” of the pathogen, which has sparked concern among the medical and scientific community worldwide.

“The emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 harboring mutations in the Spike protein, which can impact viral fitness and transmissibility, has been a matter of great concern,” Fiocruz highlights in the technical note.

This week, the Brazilian Ministry of Health had already confirmed that Japan had identified the new variant in the four travelers, which contains twelve mutations, among which is the same one found in variants already identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa, which implies a greater potential for virus transmission.

The variant detected in the Amazon is the second unpublished variant of the coronavirus identified in Brazil. In late December, a group of researchers detected a variant of the pathogen in the state of Rio de Janeiro, which is, along with the Amazon, one of the most affected regions by the health emergency in Brazil.

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