Dangerous mutations

With Covid-19 cases reportedly inching up across several states, these bring back the dreaded period of the pandemic and which has totally changed the world including the marauding Covid 19 virus itself. Unlike those dark days of ignorance and inability to treat the disease, today four years after, the medical world provides pills that can treat it and at-home tests that can identify an infection. Also people today have vaccines that have been updated to better match versions of the virus that are currently circulating. Despite these achievements, COVID-19 is around and will be for some time, according to health experts. As the world head into fifth year with COVID-19, the cold-weather months are synonymous with respiratory viruses. However, unlike flu and RSV – where cases rise in the fall and peters off in the spring and summer- COVID-19 doesn’t have a set season. Waves hit at any time in the winter, spring, summer and fall. In India, as of January 10, there were 605 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths according to , the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The six deaths – three from Karnataka, two from Chhattisgarh and one from Assam – have been reported on January 10.The number of daily cases had dropped to double-digits till December 5 last year, but cases have again gone up after emergence of a new variant (JN.1)and cold weather conditions. JN.1 is a sub-variant of Omicron, which means it has evolved through some genetic changes from Omicron variant to form the current strain which has found a lot of success in its ability to infect and transmit between people. As per WHO, the overall risk is low. JN. 1 has the ability to evade immune response and spread fast thus, it has the capacity to infect vaccinated individuals and individuals earlier recovered from COVID. However, as it is a subvariant of omicron, it is similar to it in terms of mild symptoms and high transmissibility. As a sub-variant of Omicron lineage, JN.1 is highly transmissible. Experts on how its symptoms differ from other Omicron variants.JN.1 has a much higher transmissibility rate as compared to Omicron which means the number of people it can reach is much higher than it was for Omicron. Several medical institutes have revealed that JN.1 is causing more than 50% of all infections in the USA and 70% in Singapore. JN.1 has been labeled as a Variant of interest by the WHO. Experts say it spreads faster than the other Omicron variants but does not cause more severe disease. Fever, cough, cold, headache, gastrointestinal disorders, breathing issues are some of the common symptoms of Covid JN.1. Experts warn that those with co-morbidities or who have suffered lung damage in previous waves must be careful as the new variant can affect them more. Some patients may also experience breathing difficulties. In conclusion, as long as the virus keeps spreading, there is a chance it will mutate to evade vaccines, treatments, and the population-wide immunity that have been built up, and could cause another devastating round of disease and death. Also, that viral replication could happen not only in humans- but in animal populations as well.