Recently, with the intensive work of the new crown nucleic acid rapid detection, the new crown virus variant strains continue to appear, such as the previous XE, XD, XF, as well as the mysterious tolerable BA.2 branch variant strains that are currently widely prevalent in Europe and the United States. All of them have caused a lot of public concern. Since the outbreak, no less than dozens of new coronavirus variants and their branches have been reported, so how do researchers classify them? How do researchers classify them? And how does the rapid nucleic acid test for New Coronavirus respond?
New coronaviruses are single-stranded positive-stranded RNA viruses with a genome size of approximately 30,000 bases (specifically: 29,891 bases); coronaviruses are the largest RNA viruses known. Despite the replication correction function of the new coronavirus, the virus continues to mutate during its widespread prevalence and replication, and multiple mutant strains have emerged.
Based on the systematic relationships of neo-coronaviruses, researchers have proposed various classification systems for neo-coronaviruses, such as GISAID clade, PANGO lineage and Nextstrain clade, etc. Since late 2020, WHO has used the Greek alphabet to group neo-coronavirus mutant strains that are widely prevalent worldwide and have a high public health risk, namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron, which will be more understandable and accessible for non-scientific audience discussions.
In addition, in order to have a clearer assessment of the public health risk of the virus, WHO has divided the new crown mutant strains into three groups in turn. The first is "mutants of concern" (VOC, variant of concern), which defines a virus as one that must meet the following criteria:
(1) increase the ability of the mutant to transmit or exacerbate epidemiological features;
(2) increase pathogenicity or alter clinical features;
(3) reduce the effectiveness of public health control or The VOCs include Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, and Omicron mutants. The second is the "variant of interest" (VOI) and the third is the "variant under monitoring" (VUM).
Based on the current epidemiological situation of the mutant strains, it seems that the epidemic will not end in the near future. How to deal with the continued occurrence of new coronavirus variants? We need to be prepared for.
1. Regardless of how the virus mutates, normalized prevention and control measures, including "four early" (early detection, early reporting, early isolation, and early treatment) measures, extensive vaccination, and personal protective measures such as wearing masks, diligent ventilation, hand washing, maintaining social distance, and timely rapid nucleic acid testing of new coronaviruses can effectively prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Spread.
2. Pay close attention to the new mutated strains, including whether the new crown nucleic acid rapid test reagents can diagnose them sensitively, and whether the current vaccine can effectively prevent infection, prevent serious illness, prevent death, etc.
In summary, we can know that the Nucleic Acid Rapid Test for New Coronas, as the "gold standard" for diagnosing patients with new coronas, is responsible for active real-time monitoring of the prevalent mutated strains of new coronas, timely early warning of the public health risks of mutated strains, and further optimization of vaccine and drug development, etc.
To ensure that it can continue to play a role in the prevention and control of new coronas, it is important to ensure the sensitivity of the diagnostic reagents. role, to ensure the sensitivity of diagnostic reagents, to continuously improve the process of reagents, iterative detection technology, are what practitioners in the IVD industry should do.
It is the responsibility of every member of the public to cooperate with each rapid nucleic acid test to prevent and control the epidemic.
