People in at least 10 states have now been infected with BA. 2. 86, a highly mutated variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 that the government is tracking closely.
Based on data collected from the GISAID global virus database, laboratories reported locating BA. 2. 86 in samples from Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
Estimates suggest that BA. 2. 86 still accounts for a small fraction of new COVID-19 cases nationwide.
Very few sequences of the virus have been reported in the biweekly variant estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which still show that a long list of descendants of very similar XBB variants is to blame for all infections in the country.
“The diversity is less than it seems. Many of those lineages have the same spike sequences. We’ve noticed this before, where we’re seeing convergent evolution and viruses evolving to have the same substitutions,” said Natalie Thornburg, division leader at the CDC. of the Laboratory of Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses.
Thornburg, who spoke at a meeting of the agency’s vaccine advisers last week, said it’s still too early to tell “whether BA. 2. 86 will have a significant release. “
The health government’s BA. 2. 86 continues to spread widely around the world, after scientists first expressed concerns in August about the sheer number of mutations in the strain.
“We conclude this because some of those infected with BA. 2. 86 have no known links to other infected Americans and have not recently traveled to a domain where cases of illness due to BA. 2. 86 are known,” the CDC said in a statement. Friday. evaluation.
Several countries have reported finding the variant in wastewater samples or in tests on inflamed people, adding provinces in Canada. The CDC’s airport program has also detected symptoms of stress in travelers arriving from abroad.
While it’s too early to say how transmissible the variant might be compared to other expanding strains, officials say that so far BA. 2. 86 has proven to have the ability to cause outbreaks.
Nearly two dozen nursing home citizens were infected with the BA. 2. 86 variant in a cluster of cases expired last month, British officials said.
“At this stage, although we have limited clinical knowledge about reported cases, there is no evidence that it causes more severe disease. But it’s something we’re going to continue to track,” said Hanna Kirking of the CDC’s COVID-19 Disease Center. 19 Epidemiology Task Force said Thursday at an event hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
So far, the CDC has called the results of early studies “reassuring” about the variant, suggesting it may not be as capable of evading the body’s immune defenses as initially feared.
Vaccine manufacturers also said their knowledge suggests that the newer COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out also work against BA. 2. 86.
To date, studies on BA. 2. 86 have relied heavily on pseudoviruses, which are other viruses modeled in the laboratory to mimic the unique mutations of BA. 2. 86. For best effects, viruses grown from genuine samples from inflamed patients will have to be used, a procedure that has been used lately. Let’s go.
“CDC generated two original isolates of BA. 2. 86. One demonstrated and one putative. We are in the process of distributing the BA. 2. 86 viruses to various laboratories to do transmission studies, more neutralization studies, unlike many other serum studies,” says Thornburg. .
For now, officials have expressed “cautious hope” about the symptoms that the current wave of COVID-19 in late summer, through other variants, has passed its peak. One of the main symptoms of the virus, emergency room visits, has seen a decline. trend in recent weeks.
New outbreaks of the virus dating back to the colder months have been observed in recent years, along with influenza and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. The CDC says it’s too early to know how the BA. 2. 8 variant will be factored into its model for the next pandemic. virus season.
Meanwhile, scientists have already followed BA. 2. 86, which is beginning to evolve into at least two other branches. Cases belonging to any of the sublineages have been known in the United States, among the few cases reported to date worldwide.
“This is the tip of the iceberg, since we know we don’t have a complete policy when it comes to sequencing,” Kirking said.