A group at Tokyo Medical & Dental University announced that it was the first in Japan to detect a virus with a mutation that had never been seen before in the Omicron strain of the new coronavirus, which is currently the mainstream.
The new mutation is found in the place where the mutation was found in the Delta strain that spread last summer, so it is said that it will be investigated in detail whether the infectivity is increased.
A group such as Associate Professor Hiroaki Takeuchi of Tokyo Medical & Dental University analyzed the viral genes detected in 116 corona patients in a university hospital in about three months until the middle of last month.
As a result, in the middle of last month, a virus with a new mutation was detected in "BA.2", which is currently the mainstream among the Omicron strains, from two patients.
Similar to the Delta strain, the new mutation occurred in a place called "L452", a spike protein that serves as a foothold for infecting cells, but it is not known whether the infectivity is increasing, and it will be detailed in the future. I'm trying to find out.
In addition, the symptoms of the two people in whom the virus was detected were mild, and the virus seems to have mutated in Japan due to the fact that they had no history of traveling abroad and the characteristics of the genes.
Viruses with similar mutations have been confirmed in the United Kingdom and other countries, and the number is increasing. Associate Professor Takeuchi said, "It is possible that the infectivity is high. It is necessary to continue infection control as before." I'm talking.