COVID-19: Contagiosity, vaccines everything you need to know about the Indian variant

Il provoque des records de décès et a déclenché une crise sanitaire majeure dans le deuxième pays le plus peuplé du monde, avec près de 30.000 contaminations par jour. Le variant indien, qui donne lieu à des scènes apocalyptiques à New Delhi et dans tout le pays, suscite de vives inquiétudes. Après les variants britannique, brésilien, californien et sud-africain, quel est ce nouveau variant qui touche désormais la France depuis jeudi 29 avril ?

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Variant B.1.617, more commonly known as an Indian variant, was detected for the first time in October 2020 in Ngapur, in the state of Maharashtra, in the center of India.Since his appearance, he has caused more than 200.000 deaths in the country, and has spread on all continents.Qualified as "double mutant", it is characterized by the combination of two worrying mutations, already known but unresolved so far, at the level of the "Spike" protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus, the key that allows virusesto enter our cells.

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Many questions remain around this still recent variant.On the symptom side, no significant difference with those of the original covid: headache, nasal congestion, sore throat, muscle pain."We see (patients, editor's note) suffering from diarrhea, as was the case in New York last year," Figaro Anurag Agarwal, director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, told Delhi added.And the climate being hot and dry this season, some are bleeding from the nose or the throat because they cough or sneeze more ”.

In terms of contagiousness, the observation is more alarming.A simple glance on the diagram below is enough to note a particularly high reproduction rate in India.

"The B.1.617 has a higher growth rate than other variants in circulation in India, which suggests greater contagiousness, ”confirmed WHO in its weekly report Thursday in its weekly report.However, the UN body said that "other behaviors" could explain the propagation of the virus in this overcrowded country, such as non-compliance with health restrictions and mass rallies.In a note of April 23, the scientific council also called for "a certain caution" in view of the "lack of epidemiological data correlated with the virological results of molecular sequencing".

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For the moment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has therefore not yet classified it as "worrying", but simply as "varying of interest", specifying that "additional research" in particular on contagion, theseverity and the risk of reinfection of the Indian variant "are (...) urgently necessary ".Recall that at this stage, only three variants are considered by WHO as "voc" or "varying of concern", that is to say more dangerous by contagiousness, mortality and resistance to vaccines: those who comeof the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa.

Variant B.1.617 At this point in common with the older strains that it remains detectable by PCR tests, even if doctors of the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute of Delhi entrusting that he noticed that he quickly migrated to the airways.As soon as he infected the lungs, he can therefore no longer be present in the nose or throat, and go unnoticed."The possibility of detecting the virus by PCR test is greater before the appearance of symptoms.Afterwards, this probability decreases after seven days, ”said Figaro Anurag Agarwal.It is necessary, in this case, to make a radio of the lungs.

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According to the scientific council, no solid data yet makes it possible to rule on the effectiveness of vaccines on the Indian variant."The L452R mutation could decrease the sensitivity of this antibody variant," said the French body, also declaring that "the E484Q mutation is close but different from the E484K mutation which facilitates partial exhaust to vaccines"."We can therefore expect preserved but reduced vaccination efficiency," concludes the scientific council.Questioned Thursday about RTL, one of its members, Bruno Lina, nevertheless wanted to be reassuring, claiming that "for the moment, the first data we have from the Indians is that the vaccines protectagainst this virus ".

The variant was detected for the first time in France on Thursday, with three cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health.In Lot-et-Garonne, she is a woman returned from India, symptomatic and positive tested on April 9, while she wanted to return to Asia.The patient was "isolated with her family at her home," said the Ministry of Health press release."The whole retrotracing, isolation and protection system of all people has been set up vis-à-vis this Indian variant," said Benoît Elleboode, regional director of ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine.The same day, two other cases were detected in the Bouches-du-Rhône concern "two people arriving from India, unrelated to each other", "quarantine puts immediately after their arrival" and "tested positiveAt the very beginning of their forties, respectively on April 19 and 27 ".In Guadeloupe, several cases had already been identified the previous week.

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Other suspicions of infection by variant B.1.617 were reported in mainland France according to the ministry, notably in Bordeaux, among people who stayed in India.Since April 25, all direct links from India have been suspended.

United States, Canada, Australia...Already present on the five continents, the Indian variant has been detected to date in "at least 17 countries" according to the WHO, including several European states: Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and Italy.Most cases come from India, the United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore.