With BA.5, a new Corona variant has prevailed again. She is more contagious than all her predecessors. A doctor explains how such mutations occur – and what role patients play in it.
The corona virus mutated. It keeps changing its properties, always with the aim of being able to spread as quickly as possible. This means that the modified virus often escapes the immune response of vaccinated and recovered people, we are talking about so-called “immune escape” variants.
These new variants are not only dangerous because they spread so quickly and thus infect a large number of people. By escaping at least part of the vaccine protection, high-risk groups are particularly at risk. Because the vaccinations often work a little worse for them anyway due to their weakened immune system. Or the effect of the vaccination lasts shorter.
As the virologist Stephan Becker now warns in a guest article on “Stern”, these people could play a special role in the mutations. He speaks of “accelerated selection in immunocompromised people.”
The corona virus penetrates body cells and multiplies there. During these copying processes, however, copying errors occur from time to time. In this way, a new virus variant or mutation can arise, i.e. a version of the virus in which the genetic material has changed slightly.
The stronger the corona virus circulates, the faster it can mutate. However, the coronavirus usually changes rather slowly, more slowly than the influenza virus, for example.
This means: If a person has a very poor immune system and is therefore only able to fight the corona virus poorly, the virus stays in the body longer. Here it could “accumulate a whole series of mutations,” warns Becker, “like in a small virus incubator.” This mechanism could be of importance in the case of newly occurring variants with an unusually large number of mutations.
This theory also holds true for the origin of the omicron variant. This variant was first found in Africa. For example, scientists here suspected that the variant could have originated in an HIV patient. According to immunologist Carsten Watzl, many HIV patients in Africa are not treated adequately, which is why their immune system is significantly weakened.
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The fact that the virus is currently mutating so strongly is generally related to the immunological situation in the population. Vaccination and a large number of infections would have increased the selection pressure for Sars-CoV-2. “Viruses that evade antibodies better through random mutation now have a survival advantage.”
The virus still has many opportunities to change further. “No one can predict what properties it will then have,” says Becker. “Waiting and hoping that it will become more and more harmless is not an option.”
Instead, the virologist recommends putting together a toolbox – “from which you can get different tools depending on the epidemiological situation”.
That included about
“This should also be anchored in the Infection Protection Act,” he says. Although he was “totally annoyed by the masks” – he still wears them when he is inside with many other people.
Even if the proportion of severe and fatal corona courses is currently still relatively low, that could change quickly. For example, with the greater time interval from the vaccinations.
And the long-term consequences of Corona should not be forgotten either. “For example, it is not clear how frequent infections with Sars-CoV-2 affect the risk of developing long-Covid.”
For example, a preprint study that has not yet been reviewed indicated that the risk of suffering consequential corona damage and long-Covid increases with every infection.
Among other things, the scientists found that the people who had become reinfected compared to those who were initially infected during the acute phase and also in the period of six months after the diagnosis
had. Diseases such as diabetes, fatigue, gastrointestinal and kidney diseases as well as psychological problems also occurred more frequently after reinfection.
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