Telangana Has LF.7.9 Strain of Coronavirus with Mild Symptoms

Hyderabad: While the overall Covid-19 cases in India hit 6,815, Telangana has only 10 active cases, as per the portal of the Union ministry of health and family welfare.

Experts pointed out that the Coronavirus variants being seen in India are not the ones dominant in other countries. Of the 10 cases from Telangana, five were sent to Insacog, which revealed after genetic sequencing that the LF.7.9 strain was found in four of these samples, and one was XFG. Insacog, or Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics, is a consortium of 38 national laboratories to study Covid-19 variations in India.

"Unlike in other countries where JN.1 is dominant, India is receiving LF.7.9, XFG and XFJ in about 95 per cent of the samples," said Dr Kiran Madala, co-chairman, Public Relations and Social Media Committee of IMA. "

XFG is a new Coronavirus variant that emerged from a mix of two earlier strains, LF.7 and LP.8.1.2. It carries several mutations which help the virus escape the body’s immune defenses by avoiding two major types of neutralising antibodies.

Normally, this kind of immune escape would make the virus less able to infect cells. However, despite this, XFG has been spreading quickly around the world. This suggests the virus may have developed other ways to stay infectious and continue spreading.

LF.7.9 is another new variant, which evolved from the European strain LF.7 and has shown similar behaviour, while spreading moderately well with less infectivity.

The third variant, XFJ, has been detected recently, but there is still very little known about its behaviour or risk level. For now, both LF.7.9 and XFG are concerning because of their ability to evade the immune system. However, their limited ability to bind to human cells may be keeping their spread in check — for the time being. As with all viruses, ongoing mutations could change how these variants behave, which makes continuous monitoring and transparent reporting critically important.

As per doctors, the symptoms are on par with a mild flu. "It is unlikely for a healthy patient to have severe symptoms such as cough and breathlessness. However, vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, children, elderly, those with comorbidities need to take precautions. Wearing masks and practising hand hygiene can prevent contracting the virus," said Dr Madala.

"The Covid is milder than a bad flu. I have seen nine cases in the past 48 hours. Two of them were babies less than three months old," said a paediatrician from the city.