Another COVID ‘Variant Of Interest’ Is Added By WHO: What To Know About The Mu Strain

The World Health Organization is monitoring another COVID “variant of interest,” making five total strains of the virus that it is observing and four that are variants of concern.

The WHO has labeled the new COVID strain the Mu variant, which was first identified in Colombia in January and scientifically known as B.1.621, it said in its weekly pandemic bulletin released on Tuesday.

According to the global organization, the Mu variant has been detected in other countries in South America and also in Europe in “some larger outbreaks.”

The WHO said, as of Aug. 29, over 4,500 sequence virus cases of the Mu variant have been reported from 39 countries. These Mu infections are also "prevalent" in the U.S., The Sun reported.

The organization said that the global prevalence of the Mu variant has declined and is below 0.1%, but in Colombia and Ecuador, it has consistently increased to 39% and 13% prevalence, respectively.

The full rate of transmissibility of the Mu variant as well as its resistance to the current available COVID vaccines is unclear. The WHO maintains that more studies are required to understand the characteristics of this variant.

However, the WHO did say in its bulletin, “The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape. Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccinee sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

The Beta variant is a “variant of concern” found in 141 countries.

The mutating of COVID-19 presents a particular concern for health officials, as has been seen with the Delta variant – a “variant of concern” present in 170 countries – as it is highly contagious, spreading rapidly across the globe.

Cases of the Delta variant, which was first identified in India, are spiking, evading the vaccine by causing breakthrough cases in vaccinated people, and pushing hospitals to the brink with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.

Besides the Mu variant, there are four other strains of the virus that are also “variants of interest” as determined by the WHO. These include the Eta, Iota, Kappa, and Lambda variants.

The WHO has also named the Alpha strain - present in 193 countries - and the Gamma strain - identified in 91 countries - as variants of concern due to their high rate of transmission, frequency of COVID cases, and severity of infections as well as vaccine and treatment resistance.