By Laniel Eszy Arive
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday, May 31, a new naming system for coronavirus variants.
After months of deliberation, the variants of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with confusing alphanumeric names have now been designated letters of the Greek alphabet according to the order of their detection.
The four Variants of Concern (VOC) considered by the United Nations (UN) health agency were the UK, South African, Brazilian and Indian variants, which were assigned the first four Greek letters: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta respectively. Moreover, the other six Variants of Interest (VOI), including the Philippine variant, continue down the alphabet.
According to WHO, the choice of the Greek alphabet was to quell geographical stigma and simplify scientific names which often lead to misreporting.
Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician and director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform in South Africa, said that naming variants after the places where they were first detected can stigmatize countries and their residents.
He also noted that this might even discourage nations from surveilling the new variants.
“The geographical names, we have to stop with that—really,” he added.
Additionally, this was reiterated by WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove saying, “no country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants.”
The WHO also clarified that the Greek names were not intended to replace the scientific labels but to serve as shorthand for the government, the public, and other non-experts who are having a difficult time in tracking different variant names.
RECAP: Coronavirus variants in the Philippines
On January 13, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the first case of Alpha variant in the country, which was first reported in the United Kingdom last year.
According to DOH, the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) detected the variant from the samples of a 29-year-old Filipino who came home from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 7.
The Alpha variant, formerly known as B117, is only one among the thousands of mutations of SARS-CoV2, the virus which causes COVID-19.
While DOH said that it is more transmissible because it causes increased viral load to the respiratory tract, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III clarified that it is not considered ‘more deadly’.
“Mas nakakahawa talaga pero wala pang indikasyon na ang virus na ito ay nagdudulot ng mas malubhang karamdaman,” he said. (It really is more contagious, but there is no indication yet that the virus causes more severe sickness.)
While the cases of the Alpha variant continue to balloon, another more contagious variant of concern (VOC) was detected in the country. As reported by PGC, six samples yielded positive genome sequencing results containing Beta variant, March 2.
The Beta variant, formerly known as B1351, was first detected in South Africa and is reported to be more infectious and may affect vaccine efficacy.
“Both [Alpha and Beta variants] have higher transmissibility so they can infect more people. But the South Africa variant has a mutation or component that affects vaccine efficacy so it is monitored more because of the phenomenon of immune escape,” said DOH undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
Health authorities have called for faster containment measures to stop its spread.
Additionally, two more variants were reported in the country.
On March 13, DOH confirmed the presence of the highly transmissible Gamma variant, also called P1, in the samples of a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Western Visayas.
To date, the said variant which had first appeared in Brazil has already spread to 37 countries and is believed to have properties that can re-infect people who have recovered from COVID-19.
Along with the Gamma variant, the health department confirmed the detection of the P3 variant, now renamed as the Theta variant, which was found in local samples in the Philippines.
Cynthia Saloma, PGC executive director, said that the variant was not seen in 600,000 deposits in the database, so “it really is a variant of origin."
However, health officials clarified that despite the increase in transmissibility, it is not considered as a VOC but as a variant of interest (VOI). Health experts explained that the current available data was not sufficient to conclude whether the variant will have a significant impact to global health.
Months later, the country's health experts confirmed that the fourth VOC as classified by WHO, also called B1617, has entered the Philippines, May 10.
This was the Delta variant identified first in India. Known as the “double mutant” for having two famous mutations, L452R and E484Q, the said variant may affect the virus’ spike protein which is the basis of COVID-19 vaccines.
The first two cases were from the samples of a 37-year-old and a 58-year-old ROF who eventually recovered from the disease on May 3 and May 6, respectively.
As of the latest update from DOH, there are 104 new cases of the Alpha variant, and 137 of the Beta variant, bringing the total number of variant cases to 1,071 and 1,246, respectively.
Additionally, four more cases of the Theta variant and one case of the Delta variant were also reported, May 26.
Of the COVID-19 variant cases, which have already reached 2,494, only 26 cases remain active, according to DOH.
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