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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The director of the postgraduate program at YARSI University, Jakarta, Tjandra Yoga Aditama explained the cause Covid-19 mutated. According to him, several aspects play a role in the mutation of the virus until a new variant shows up.

“Simply put, every event in health science depends on three things: the person, the cause of the disease, and the environment. That is why balance and imbalance play a role, “he said in a virtual event for the expert lecture of the Masters of Biomedical Science at YARSI University on Wednesday, September 15, 2021.

Tjandra set an example for environmental conditions at the beginning pandemic, Covid-19 spread in January-March 2020 in the winter season, leading to the argument that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will go away in summer with an impact on the environment.

When summer came, Covid-19 did not go away, even in India with fairly hot weather conditions there had been very high spikes in cases. “So in the environmental aspect it cannot be scientifically denied, but with the conditions,” he said again

Professor at the Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI) He added that in relation to humans or hosts and causes of disease, it is clear that viruses need a habitat, namely humans, animals and even plants.

As long as human-to-human transmission takes place, the virus will continue to exist and multiply, according to Tjandra. When community transmission is high, replication of the virus needs to increase, and when it multiplies the virus copies and pastes its body, just not exactly the same. Some parts of his body change, this is called mutation.

“If there are enough parts that change, new variants can emerge. So that’s a general concept about viral mutations, “Tjandra said.

In agreement with Tjandra, Ahmad Rusdan Handoyo Utomo, Biomedical Postgraduate Lecturer at YARSI University, stated that a virus must “meet” with humans in order to change. “Because that’s where the duplication takes place, the copy and paste happens,” Ahmad said.

The recipient of a PhD in Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, United States, said new variants of Covid-19 usually show up in areas that have not been controlled, such as Colombia, Brazil, including India, where cases have arisen sharply pointed. In China, where the virus was first suspected, there were no new variants because it was immediately controlled with strict social restrictions.

That means, Ahmad said, if the virus can find an immunocompromised host – a weakened immune system – especially in the elderly, it will be a problem and the virus can last long with nowhere to go. However, only two weeks can be lost in healthy people.

“Well, the immunocompromised person becomes a mutant producer. When the person finally exhaled, certain mutations or variants could appear, “Ahmad said.

The graduate of the Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, also recalled that modification of the virus variant can affect different people. “Both people who were not vaccinated and people who were vaccinated,” he said.

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