Tag: WHO

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

WHO Vitamin C Guidelines from World War II Study Challenged

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Researchers have re-analysed a landmark study on Vitamin C conducted during World War II, which informed the WHO’s recommended daily amount, finding the amount to be half that actually required.

When food was scarce during World War II, gruelling experiments were conducted in Britain to determine the bare minimums of food and water that were required for health and survival, and how to prioritise the allocation of food.

One of the more robust experiments run on human subjects during this time in Britain, which has had long-lasting public health consequences, was a vitamin C depletion study started in 1944. This medical experiment involved 20 subjects, most of whom were conscientious objectors living in a building in Sorby where many similar experiments were conducted. They were overseen by a future Nobel Prize winner, and detailed data was kept on each participant in the study.

“The vitamin C experiment is a shocking study,” said Philippe Hujoel, lead author of a new analysis of the Sorby vitamin C experiment, a practicing dentist and professor of oral health sciences in the UW School of Dentistry. “They depleted people’s vitamin C levels long-term and created life-threatening emergencies. It would never fly now.”

Despite two participants developing life-threatening heart problems from the vitamin C depletion, Hujoel added, none of the subjects were permanently harmed, and later many indicated they would participate again.

Due to vitamin C shortages, they wanted to be conservative with the supplies, explained Hujoel, who is also an adjunct professor of epidemiology. The goal of the Sorby investigators was not to determine the required vitamin C intake for optimal health; it was to find out the minimum vitamin C requirements for preventing scurvy.

Vitamin C is important for wound healing because scar tissue formation depends on collagen, which needs vitamin C. In addition to knitting skin back together, collagen also maintains the integrity of blood vessel walls, thus protecting against stroke and heart disease.

In the Sorby trial, researchers assigned participants to zero, 10 or 70 milligrams a day for an average of nine months. The depleted subjects were then repleted and saturated with vitamin C. Experimental wounds were made during this depletion and repletion. The scar strength of these experimental wounds was a measure of adequate vitamin C levels since poor wound healing, in addition to such conditions as bleeding gums, is indicative of scurvy.

The Sorby researchers concluded that 10 milligrams a day was enough to ward off signs of scurvy. Partly based on this, the WHO recommends 45 milligrams a day. Hujoel said that the re-analyses of the Sorby data suggest that the WHOrecommendation is too low to prevent weak scar strength.

In a bit of scientific detective work, Hujoel said he tracked down and reviewed the study’s data, and with the aid of Margaux Hujoel, a scientist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, put the data through modern statistical techniques designed to handle small sample sizes, techniques not available to the original scientists. They published their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The Hujoels found that the data from this unique study, which formed a cornerstone for dietary recommendations worldwide, needed more than just being assessed with the ‘eyeball method’.

“It is concluded that the failure to reevaluate the data of a landmark trial with novel statistical methods as they became available may have led to a misleading narrative on the vitamin C needs for the prevention and treatment of collagen-related pathologies,” the researchers wrote.

“Robust parametric analyses of the (Sorby) trial data reveal that an average daily vitamin C intake of 95 mg is required to prevent weak scar strength for 97.5% of the population. Such a vitamin C intake is more than double the daily 45 mg vitamin C intake recommended by the WHO but is consistent with the writing panels for the National Academy of Medicine and (other) countries,” they added.

The Hujoels’ study also found that recovery from a vitamin C deficiency is lengthy, requiring higher levels of vitamin C. Even an average daily dose of 90 milligrams a day of vitamin C for six months failed to restore normal scar strength for the depleted study participants.

Source: University of Washington

Categories : COVIDTags :

WHO Urges Support for New COVID Origin Investigation

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all countries “to put differences aside” in order to speed up investigations into the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – including the unproven suggestion that it was accidentally released from laboratory.

This announcement follows a joint report into the origins of the coronavirus issued in March by the WHO and China. The UN agency, noting “insufficient scientific evidence to rule any of the hypotheses out” about the origins of the new coronavirus, insisted that to address the ‘lab hypothesis’, it needed access “to all data” in order to prevent global health threats in future.
“WHO calls for all governments to depoliticise the situation and cooperate to accelerate the origins studies, and importantly to work together to develop a common framework for future emerging pathogens of pandemic potential,” it said.

“We call on all governments to put differences aside and work together to provide all data and access required so that the next series of studies can be commenced as soon as possible.”

In a detailed statement, WHO explained the need for additional studies into “all hypotheses” about how SARS-CoV-2 made the jump from animals to humans.

Transparency call
A new independent advisory group of experts, the International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), will support the project by coordinating the studies recommended in the March report, it said.

Nominations for the panel would be welcomed from all countries, WHO said, whose task would be similar to previous COVID missions to China and those launched to investigate the origins of avian influenza, Lassa virus and Ebola virus.

“This open call aims to ensure that a broad range of scientific skills and expertise are identified to advise WHO on the studies needed to identify the origins of any future emerging or re-emerging pathogen of pandemic potential,” the UN agency said.

Scientific endeavour
Noting how hard it is to identify the origin of any novel pathogen, the agency insisted that the mission “is not and should not be an exercise in attributing blame, finger-pointing or political point-scoring. It is vitally important to know how the COVID pandemic began, to set an example for establishing the origins of all future animal-human spill-over events.”

Access to sensitive information was needed for the success of the operation with “a further examination of the raw data from the earliest cases”, along with blood serum from potentially infected people in 2019, before the pandemic.

Data sharing
Data from “a number of countries” that reported finding the virus in blood samples taken in 2019 has already been shared with WHO, it noted. This included Italy, where WHO coordinated retesting of pre-pandemic blood samples outside the country.

“Sharing raw data and giving permission for the retesting of samples in labs outside of Italy reflects scientific solidarity at its best and is no different from what we encourage all countries, including China, to support so that we can advance the studies of the origins quickly and effectively,” WHO said, and restated that access to data was “critically important for evolving our understanding of science and should not be politicised in any way”.

Source: UN News

Categories : Diseases, Syndromes and ConditionsTags : 1 Comment

Marburg Virus Detected in Guinea

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Colourised scanning electron micrograph of Marburg virus particles (blue) both budding and attached to the surface of infected VERO E6 cells (orange). Credit: NIAID

Guinea’s health authority announced the first detection of the Marburg virus in the country, which is also the first case in West Africa.

Marburg, a haemorrhagic fever-causing virus related to Ebola, killed more than 200 people in Angola in 2005, the deadliest recorded outbreak. Laboratory tests of samples taken from a now-deceased patient turned out positive for the Marburg virus.

The patient had sought treatment at a local clinic in the southern prefecture of Gueckedou, and a medical team had been sent to investigate the case.  Cases of the 2021 Ebola outbreak in Guinea occurred in Gueckedou, as well as the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak were initially detected.

“We applaud the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea’s health workers. The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “We are working with the health authorities to implement a swift response that builds on Guinea’s past experience and expertise in managing Ebola, which is transmitted in a similar way.”

Contact tracing efforts are underway, and health authorities are launching education and awareness programmes on the disease. 

Four high-risk contacts, including a healthcare worker, have been identified, as well as 146 others who could be at risk, according to expert Dr Krutika Kuppalli, who spoke to the BBC. A team of WHO experts is on the ground helping to investigate the case and aiding the national health authority’s emergency response.

Cross-border surveillance is also being enhanced to quickly detect any cases, with neighbouring countries on alert. The Ebola control systems in place in Guinea and in neighbouring countries are proving crucial to the emergency response to the Marburg virus.

Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact of body fluids.

Illness begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache and malaise. Within seven days, severe haemorrhagic signs appear in many patients. Case fatality rates are high, ranging from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management.

With no direct treatments for the virus, supportive care, including rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids, and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival. There are evaluations underway for potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies.

One experimental antiviral compound being tested works by preventing viral particles from ‘budding off’ of infected cells.

Source: WHO

Categories : COVIDTags :

WHO Calls for COVID Booster Pause to Let World Vaccinate

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The head  of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called for a moratorium on COVID vaccine boosters until “at least the end of September” to enable the world’s most vulnerable people to be inoculated.

“I understand the concern of all Governments to protect their people from the Delta variant, but we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected”, said Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, WHO head.

Speaking during his weekly press conference, Tedros recalled that in May he had asked for international support to promote global vaccinations with the goal of enabling a minimum of 10 percent of each country’s population to be vaccinated by the end of September.  

With the time already half gone, he lamented the lack of progress towards that goal, and even less towards the target of 30 percent vaccinated by year end.

Widening inequality
So far, more than four billion COVID vaccine doses had been administered around the globe, 80 percent of them in high- and middle-income countries – even though less than half of the world’s population live there, the WHO chief said.

As of May, high-income countries had administered about 50 doses for every 100 people, a figure that has since almost doubled, while supply shortages in low-income countries meant only 1.5 doses for every 100.

“Still, some rich countries are considering booster doses even though there are hundreds of millions of people waiting to have access to a first dose”, stressed Tedros, urging that most of those vaccines instead go to low-income countries.

The WHO has insisted global vaccination requires cooperation by all, “especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines”.

Tedros said that the G20 nations have a vital role to play as its members are the largest producers, consumers, and donors of COVID vaccines.

“It’s no understatement to say that the course of the pandemic depends on the leadership of the G20 countries”, he said, adding, that one month from now, the G20 health ministers will meet, ahead of the October summit and calling on them to “make concrete commitments to support WHO’s global vaccination targets. We call on vaccine producers to prioritise COVAX“.

Tedros also called on leaders and influential personalities, as well as every individual and community to support the moratorium on booster doses.

Booster’s immune benefit questionable
Meanwhile, Dr Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) emphasized that so far there is no evidence that a booster dose adds immune benefits to people who already have the full vaccination course.

Source: UN News

Categories : COVIDTags :

WHO Urges Equitable Travel Requirements

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The WHO has urged that as air travel is restored, vaccinations should not be a prerequisite for travellers, potentially locking out those in poorer regions, especially Africa.

In a virtual press briefing on Thursday, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa said that the WHO believes that schemes to remove quarantine and entry restrictions for travellers that have been vaccinated, are discriminatory and could deepen already existing inequalities even further.

Meanwhile, she warned that Africa’s third wave, already underway in 12 countries, with cases rising in another 14, threatens to be the worst yet with 5.3 million cases across the continent. It is projected that in three weeks the third wave will surpass the previous wave’s peak.

Public fatigue and new variants are driving this surge across Africa, with Delta the variant  detected in 14 countries. She stated that Africa can “blunt this third wave” but “the window of opportunity is closing”.

The WHO aims to strengthen variant surveillance in Africa by reinforcing the regional laboratory hub have a 8 to 10 fold increase in next 6 months for genome sequencing

Though vaccination rates remain low in Africa, there is nevertheless a great demand for vaccines, with 18 countries having used over 80% of the vaccines received through COVAX. Fortunately only mild side effects from the vaccines have been seen in African communities, she said.

Mr Kamil Alawadi, Regional Vice President for Africa and Middle East, International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that inconsistent requirements added additional complications in travel, increasing cost for the passenger and the airline. For travellers, PCR testing can range from $100 up to $400 for a single, one direction trip.

The key requirement for the recovery of the airline industry is the lifting of restrictions, said Alwadi, citing a survey that showed that 84% of passengers will not fly if there were quarantines in place. However, demand still existed for air travel, as evidenced by travel bookings spiking as soon as governments relaxed their border restrictions.

Alawadi said that the IATA agreed with the WHO that only lifting quarantine requirements for vaccine individuals was inequitable, and that “a robust and flexible testing system” was needed in place of quarantine, using systematic testing at the point of departure such as rapid antigen tests which are cheaper, faster and more accessible.

Graphic from Skyscanner.net showing countries with major travel restrictions from South Africa (red, 83 countries), moderate (orange, 29) and low restrictions (green, 42)

The situation was urgent for the African aviation industry as it had lost USD7.8 billion in 2020, with eight airlines filing for bankruptcy, he noted. This was against a background of USD430 billion global loss for the industry, though he noted that some countries are seeing a rebound to 2019 numbers for domestic travel. However, it is projected that losses will only stop by 2023 and return to profit by 2024.

The IATA has developed protocols in concert with the  International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and WHO that will be non-discriminatory not require vaccinations, said Alwadi. However the aviation industry is sinking very rapidly without governmental support.

Categories : COVIDTags :

Tech Transfer for Local mRNA Vaccine Production

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South Africa is planning to make vaccines locally using messenger RNA, the breakthrough technology of the global COVID vaccination effort – and once nearly consigned to the dustbin of medical research history.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVAX partners are working with a South African consortium comprising Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish its first COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub.

This follows WHO’s global call for Expression of Interest to establish COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hubs to scale up production and access to COVID vaccines. The partners will negotiate details with the South African government and public and private partners both local and international.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “The COVID pandemic has revealed the full extent of the vaccine gap between developed and developing economies, and how that gap can severely undermine global health security. This landmark initiative is a major advance in the international effort to build vaccine development and manufacturing capacity that will put Africa on a path to self determination. South Africa welcomes the opportunity to host a vaccine technology transfer hub and to build on the capacity and expertise that already exists on the continent to contribute to this effort.”

“This is great news, particularly for Africa, which has the least access to vaccines,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “COVID has highlighted the importance of local production to address health emergencies, strengthen regional health security and expand sustainable access to health products.”

The announcement follows the recent visit to South Africa by French President Emmanuel Macron, who gave his country’s commitment to aiding local vaccine production.

“Today is a great day for Africa. It is also a great day for all those who work towards a more equitable access to health products. I am proud for Biovac and our South African partners to have been selected by WHO, as France has been supporting them for years,” said President Macron. “This initiative is the first of a long list to come, that we will keep supporting, with our partners, united in the belief that acting for global public goods is the fight of the century and that it cannot wait.”

Technology transfer hubs are training facilities where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed. Interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licences to the technology, assisted by the WHO and partners.

Biovac is a bio-pharmaceutical company resulting from a partnership formed with the South African government in 2003 to establish local vaccine manufacturing capability for the provision of vaccines for national health management and security.

Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines is a biotechnology company focuses on product development, bulk adjuvant manufacturing and supply and distribution of key biologicals to address unmet healthcare needs.

The organisations complement one another, and can each take on different roles within the proposed collaboration: Biovac will be the developer while Afrigen is the manufacturer, with a consortium of universities as academic supporters providing mRNA know-how. Africa CDC will provide technical and regional support.

The South African consortium has existing operating facilities with available capacity and experience in technology transfers. It is also a global hub that can start training technology recipients immediately.

The WHO is speaking to a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers about establishing the hub, though the talks are so far mainly with “smaller companies,” said Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist. “We are having discussions with the larger companies with proven mRNA technology,” she added.

The mRNA vaccines may be produced in South Africa within 9 to 12 months, she said. WHO’s call for expressions of interest has so far generated 28 offers to either provide technology for mRNA vaccines or to host a technology hub or both. 

It is the first time that messenger RNA technology has been used to make vaccines, which has been used by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. They have proven very effective against the original SARS-CoV-2 strains and even against its more recent variants.

Source: World Health Organization

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

WHO Releases New Guidelines on Community-based Mental Healthcare

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Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

The World Health Organization has released new guidance that aims to put an end to abuse of people in psychiatric care by embracing community-based mental healthcare.

Around the world, most mental health care continues to be provided in psychiatric hospitals, and human rights abuses and coercive practices remain widespread. But providing community-based mental health care that is both respectful of human rights and focused on recovery is proving successful and cost-effective, according to new guidance released today by the World Health Organization.

The Life Esidimeni tragedy highlights the importance of providing adequate care to mental health patients. Mental health care recommended in the new guidance should be located in the community, and which also supports day-to-day living, such as facilitating access to accommodation and links with education and employment services.

WHO’s new “Guidance on community mental health services: promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches” further affirms that mental health care must be grounded in a human rights-based approach, as recommended by the WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2020-2030 endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2021.

Faster transition needed
“This comprehensive new guidance provides a strong argument for a much faster transition from mental health services that use coercion and focus almost exclusively on the use of medication to manage symptoms of mental health conditions, to a more holistic approach that takes into account the specific circumstances and wishes of the individual and offers a variety of approaches for treatment and support,” said Dr Michelle Funk of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, who led the development of the guidance.

A growing number of countries are seeking to reform their laws, policies and services related to mental health care since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006, But few countries have so far set down the necessary frameworks to meet the far-reaching changes required by international human rights standards. Severe human rights abuses and coercive practices are still far too common in countries of all income levels. Examples of these include forced admission and forced treatment; manual, physical and chemical restraint; unsanitary living conditions; and physical and verbal abuse.

Governments spend less than 2% of their health budgets on mental health, according to WHO’s latest estimates and most mental health expenditure is allocated to psychiatric hospitals, save for high-income countries where the figure is around 43%.

The new guidance, mainly aimed at people responsible for organising and managing mental health care, presents details of what is required in areas such as mental health law, policy and strategy, service delivery, financing, workforce development and civil society participation for mental health services to achieve compliance with the CRPD.

It includes examples from countries which have community-based mental health services that have shown good practices in respect of non-coercive practices, community inclusion, and respect of people’s legal capacity (ie the right to make decisions about their treatment and life).

The required services include crisis support, mental health services provided within general hospitals, outreach services, supported living approaches and support provided by peer groups. Information about financing and results of evaluations of the services presented are included. The report include cost comparisons which show that the featured community-based services produce good outcomes, are preferred by service users and cost about the same as standard mental care services.

“Transformation of mental health service provision must, however, be accompanied by significant changes in the social sector,” said Gerard Quinn, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. “Until that happens, the discrimination that prevents people with mental health conditions from leading full and productive lives will continue.”

Source: The World Health Organization

Categories : COVIDTags :

WHO Warns of African Third Wave

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COVID cases map. Photo by Giacomo Carra on Unsplash

A surge in COVID cases in many parts of Africa could mean a continental third wave, the World Health Organization warned, posing a great threat for a continent where immunisation drives have been hamstrung by funding shortfalls and production delays for vaccine doses.

The WHO said that over the last week, test positivity had risen in 14 African countries, with eight reporting a surge of over 30% in new cases. Infections are steadily climbing in South Africa, where four of nine provinces are battling a third wave and the positivity rate was 14.2% as of Sunday. Uganda has also seen sharp increases, with hospitals overwhelmed with COVID patients and a lockdown being considered.

Weak compliance with social restrictions, increasing travel and the arrival of winter is behind the rise in cases, the WHO said. Experts also believe that new variants are also driving the numbers up.

Although Africa has reported less than 3 per cent of global coronavirus cases, the WHO said that the continent accounted for 3.7 percent of total deaths. This is likely an underestimate, given the lack of formal reporting for deaths.

“The threat of a third wave in Africa is real and rising,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, in a statement. “It’s crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19.”

While many wealthier countries have vigorous vaccination campaigns and some are on track to fully reopen, many of Africa’s poorer countries face a huge challenge in accessing vaccines.

Out of 1.3 billion people on the continent, only 31 million have received at least one dose, Dr Moeti said, and only seven million are fully vaccinated. Just 1386 people in Kenya have received two doses of a vaccine, out of a population of 50 million.

Countries like Ghana and Rwanda have run through their first deliveries of vaccines through Covax, the global facility working to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines.

In some countries, vaccine hesitancy has been so high that it even caused stocks of vaccines to expire. Possible contamination in Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses detected at a US manufacturing plant has resulted in yet another delay to South Africa’s immunisation programme.

Meanwhile, fake vaccines and PPE pose another problem; last November a police raid in South Africa found almost 2400 doses of fake vaccine.

The WHO warned that the surge of causes could swamp the limited capacities of healthcare systems. To stave off a full-blown crisis, Dr Moeti urged “countries that have reached a significant vaccination coverage to release doses and keep the most vulnerable Africans out of critical care.”

Only about two per cent of the population has received at least one vaccine dose, compared with the 24 per cent global figure.

“While many countries outside Africa have now vaccinated their high-priority groups and are able to even consider vaccinating their children, African countries are unable to even follow up with second doses for high-risk groups,” said Dr. Moeti. “I’m urging countries that have reached a significant vaccination coverage to release doses and keep the most vulnerable Africans out of critical care.”

Source: UN News

Categories : COVIDTags :

South African Variant is Now Called ‘Beta’ Under WHO Naming Scheme

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To avoid stigmatisation and simplify discussion, the World Health Organization has announced a new naming system for variants of the COVID virus with important mutations.

In an attempt to remove the country-associated stigma from the emergence of a variant, each will receive a name from the Greek alphabet.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s coronavirus lead, said that “no country should be stigmatised for detecting and reporting variants”.

She added that these new labels for VOI/VOC are “simple, easy to say and remember and are based on the Greek alphabet, a system that was chosen following wide consultation and a review of several potential systems”.

In the new naming system, B.1.17., the variant first reported in Kent, England is designated Alpha, B.1351, the variant originating in South Africa is called Beta, the Brazilian variant P.1 is now Gamma and the B.1617.2 variant first reported in India is Delta. The variants of interest run from Epsilon to Kappa. The WHO has provided a table detailing the different names.

These Greek letters will not replace existing scientific names, though there are only 24 letters. If more variants are identified for naming, a new naming scheme will be announced, Ms Van Kerkhove told US-based website STAT News.

“We’re not saying replace B.1.1.7, but really just to try to help some of the dialogue with the average person,” she told the US-based website. “So that in public discourse, we could discuss some of these variants in more easy-to-use language.”

On Monday, a scientific adviser for the UK government said the country was now in the early stages of a third wave of coronavirus infections, in part driven by the Delta variant, which had emerged in India.

It is thought to spread more quickly than the UK’s Alpha variant, which was responsible for the surge in cases in the UK over the winter.

Vietnam has reported what appears to be a combination of those two variants. On Saturday, the country’s health minister stated that it could spread quickly through the air and described it as “very dangerous”.

Source: BBC News

Categories : COVIDTags :

B1617 is Becoming the Globally Dominant COVID Strain

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COVID cases map. Photo by Giacomo Carra on Unsplash

The B1617 variant, is becoming increasingly dominant around the world and could worsen the pandemic – especially in countries where low vaccination rates are low. This warning comes from experts in Singapore, who added that there will be more virus mutations to come.

Professor Teo Yik Ying, dean of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said to The Straits Times: “What is frightening is the speed at which this variant is able to spread and circulate widely within the community, often surpassing the capability of contact-tracing units to track and isolate exposed contacts to break the transmission chains.

“It has the potential to unleash a bigger pandemic storm than the world has previously seen.”

Delta has mutated to be more transmissible, and may slightly weaken the protection conferred by vaccines as well as natural infection, experts said. The variant, which was first detected in India in October 2020, is now found around the world. 

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that B1617 is 1.5 times to two times more transmissible than the strain that first appeared in Wuhan 18 months ago.

It is now present in more than 50 countries and is surpassing other strains causing infections in India, such as B117 (now ‘Alpha’, commonly known as the UK variant).

“On clinical severity, it’s a little less clear because there have not been controlled studies which look at patients that you control for multiple factors, and then look at the impact of the strain on the clinical profile,” Dr Soumya said at a recent webinar.

Dr Soumya added that anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that more young people in India had been infected and developed serious illness.

In India, more than 27 million people have been infected with COVID, with over 325 000 deaths.

There are three versions of B1617 – B16171 (Kappa), B16172 (Delta) and B16173. The second version is the most relevant as it has appeared to overtake B1671/Kappa as reported globally. The third version, B16173, is rare and has not yet been given a Greek letter designation by the WHO.

On May 8, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases announced that it had detected five cases of the Delta variant in South Africa; three in Gauteng and two in KwaZulu–Natal. Presently, it is unclear if B1617 causes more severe illness or a higher mortality rate.

The best weapon remains widespread vaccination, Prof Teo said. Vaccinated individuals have less chance of being infected, and are much less likely to develop severe symptoms even if infected, Prof Teo added.

Preliminary US research showed that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should still be effective against B1617.

A study by Public Health England also showed that the vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca work against Delta, which has become the dominant strain in the UK.

The study found that the Pfizer-BioNTech shot was 88% effective against the Delta variant two weeks after the second dose, with a 60% effectiveness for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The pressure is to keep up with the rapidly mutating virus and immunise populations to control it. Unfortunately, most countries’s vaccination programmes are far behind.

On Friday, WHO European director Hans Kluge warned that the pandemic will not be over until at least 70% of people are vaccinated. He deplored the roll-out in Europe, saying that while it was better it was still “too slow”.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said about 43% of adults in the European Union and European Economic Area have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine as of Saturday, 29 May.

“Time is against us,” Dr Kluge warned, stressing the need to accelerate the immunisation campaign.

South Africa’s long-delayed vaccination programme is in full swing, but so far only about 1% of the population have received a jab, which is currently being administered to healthcare workers and those over 60.

Globally, the outlook does not seem good. The New York Times reported that more than 1.81 billion vaccine doses had been administered worldwide as at Friday (May 28), but a stark divide remains between countries’ vaccination programmes, with some not even reporting a single dose given.

Global inequity in vaccine supplies and distribution persists, and the opportunity for widespread vaccination remains a privilege for advanced economies, Prof Teo said.

Professor Dale Fisher, chair of the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, said this means a higher chance of B1617 creeping into countries that had been virtually untouched by COVID.

“These countries, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, are more vulnerable due to the low vaccination rates, leaving them more susceptible to severe disease,” Prof Fisher added.

He urged wealthier nations to lend more support to the WHO-backed Covax programme, a global project to secure and distribute vaccines to poorer countries.

Source: Straits Times