What is the 'lambda mutation' from South America... "The radio wave power and danger cannot be accurately confirmed"

As the Corona 19 'delta mutation' is spreading around the world, attention is also being paid to another mutation named 'lambda'.

The lambda mutation that has spread mainly in South America is not a recent mutation.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 13th (local time), the lambda, or 'C.37' mutation was first identified in Peru, South America, in December last year.

Like other viruses, the virus that causes COVID-19 is constantly evolving and creating countless variations.

Not all mutations are dangerous or meaningful, so the WHO designates and manages 'variants of concern' and 'mutations of interest' in consideration of whether there are changes in transmission power or fatality rate compared to existing viruses, and whether vaccines are effective.

Currently, the variants of concern are designated alpha, beta, gamma, and delta, in turn, for variants found in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India.

Variants of interest one notch lower include lambda, which was added on the 14th of last month, eta, yota, and kappa, and there are about 10 other mutations to be monitored.

The lambda mutation was called the 'Andean mutation' before it was designated as a mutation of interest.

The existence of a new Andean mutation along with a gamma mutation from Brazil in April, when the re-spreading of Corona 19 in Peru and other South America was severe, also drew attention.

According to the WHO last month, 80% of new COVID-19 cases in Peru in the two months since April were infected with a lambda mutation, and the ratio of lambda mutations in Argentina and Chile was about a third.

In April, Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez was diagnosed with COVID-19 and was also known to have been infected with a lambda mutation.

At the time, President Fernandez said that he was infected even after receiving two doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, but his symptoms were mild thanks to the vaccine.

Currently, lambda mutations have been confirmed in about 30 countries, including South American countries, the United States, Canada, and some European countries.

The WHO designated the mutation as a mutation of interest because it has the potential to be more dangerous than the existing virus, but the problem is that there has not been an exact study on the transmission ability of the lambda mutation.

Peru has the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 relative to the population in the world, and the fatality rate is 9%, which is the highest in the world, but based on this, it is unreasonable to believe that the lambda mutation is more dangerous.

Peru had the highest number of deaths per population in August of last year, even before the spread of the lambda mutation, and the fatality rate in Chile, where lambda was also spread, was 2.14%, which is comparable to the global average (2.16%).

The spread of COVID-19 has slowed since April in Peru and June in Chile.

The New York Times (NYT), an American daily, said in an article analyzing the lambda mutation on the 8th, "It is not clear whether lambda is more contagious than other mutations, the symptoms of infected people are more severe, and it reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine.

"There is no reason to think that lambda mutations are more dangerous than deltas," Nathaniel Landau, professor of microbiology at New York University, who studied the lambda mutation, told The New York Times.

In a recent research paper that has yet to be published, Prof. Lando and University of Chile Professor Ricardo Sotoripo said that antibodies made with vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Synovac are less potent against lambda mutations, but they can still neutralize the virus.

In addition, since T cells in addition to antibodies also have an immune function, Professor Sotolipo explained that "a decrease in neutralizing antibodies does not mean a decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccine."

Trevor Bedford, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the U.S., told the New York Times, "It's been a while since the appearance of lambda, but it hasn't penetrated the United States as badly as the gamma mutation." I did.

However, experts point out that there are still many unknowns about the Corona 19 virus itself, so we need to keep paying attention and be careful about new mutations, including lambda.