COVID-19 rise in Bangladesh correlates with increasing detection of B.1.351 variant

Abstract

Epidemiological, phenotypic and genomic characterisation of certain variants of SARS-CoV-2 have highlighted the changing transmissibility, infectivity and antigenic escape capability of this virus. Of considerable interest are the B.1.1.7 variant (20I/501Y.V1) and B.1.351 variant (20H/501Y.V2) that have now been reported from multiple countries around the world. B.1.1.7 was first detected in September 2020 in the UK through genomic surveillance, and it contains a mutation (N501Y) in the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein that has been reported to increase transmission and virulence through genomic and epidemiological studies. The variant still shows strong response to antibody treatment and is effectively neutralised by antibodies generated on vaccination by mRNA-based vaccines. The B.1.351, first identified in South Africa in October 2020, carries the N501Y mutation and two additional mutations (E484K and K471N) that confer increased antibody resistance. These findings make it imperative to continuously track circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 globally, especially in low-resource settings, to institute evidence-based policy decisions. This editorial aims to raise awareness regarding the increasing isolation of the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants and documented cases of re-infection in Bangladesh in recent months.

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This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006012

Repository URI

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/244783/