2,366 people infected, 92 died. These are the latest figures from Iran, released on Tuesday March 3 by health officials. Despite the constant measures taken by Tehran to control the epidemic, the Iranian situation is worrying. Second country to have the highest number of deaths after China, it is also at the heart of a polemic of the virus, with a mortality rate much higher than the rest of the world, which is 5.5% in Iran and 2 at 3% elsewhere. La Dépêche du Midi is investigating this possible mutation of the virus for you.
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Is the Covid-19 coronavirus mutating?
“The coronavirus mutates”. Since the multiplication of cases of contamination in Iran, and the skyrocketing increase in the number of deaths in this territory, a mutation of the coronavirus has been mentioned. The reason ? The death rate in Iran being at 5.5%, whereas usually it would oscillate between 2 and 3%, according to the Science post. However, Iran would not be the cause of this change.
But for Bruno Lina, professor of virology at Lyon-1 University, nothing like this is to be considered. Contacted by us, he also certified that to date “there is no significant mutation observed in SARS-CoV-2”.
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If the coronavirus were to mutate, would it be impossible to cure it?
For epidemiologist Marius Gilbert, a mutation, despite the anxiety it often generates, is not alarming. Viruses are in “perpetual mutation”, he informs. “Talking about the mutation of a virus is like talking about a galloping horse. A virus mutates all the time, it’s pretty commonplace,” he confirmed.
For the coronavirus, a mutation would not be “dangerous”. “It is also quite stable in the coronavirus, the flu mutates much more,” says Marius Gilbert. “If it evolves, it is heading for a less dangerous virus”.
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Why does a virus mutate?
Regarding the covid-19 coronavirus, it is, for the moment, a “neutral mutation”. You should know that all living organisms carry, in their genetic heritage, a long molecular chain: DNA. For covid-19, the information is located on another chain, RNA. And this genetic heritage is transmitted with each reproduction of the virus. The genetic inheritance, which contains several hundred million characters, is then copied thousands of times. A colossal task, which sometimes leads to some errors when copying.
These errors, however rare they may be, are considered mutated versions of the original. “In our system, human beings, there is a system for correcting its multiplication errors. But this system does not exist in viruses, errors are therefore made, and the virus mutates,” specifies Marius Gilbert. This would therefore be why no “significant mutation” has so far been observed on the coronavirus, as the virologist Bruno Lina said above.
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