Health officials and scientists say they are now rushing to investigate BA. 2. 86, a new strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, after the highly mutated variant was detected spreading to several countries around the world and at least four other U. S. states. U. S.
For now, officials say they are well stocked to deal with the tension if it continues to spread. Initial testing recommends that existing remedies and tests, as well as upcoming vaccines to be rolled out in September, will not be delivered via BA. 2. 86.
But many questions remain about the variant, dubbed “Pirola” on social media, whose mutations may constitute an evolutionary leap comparable to the emergence of the Omicron variant in 2021.
Here’s the latest we know about the strain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization say they have been closely monitoring the emergence of a new, highly mutated variant of COVID-19 that scientists have dubbed BA. 2. 86.
The new variant first raised concerns earlier this month after variant trackers detected a handful of new sequences appearing in global viral databases with a host of genetic modifications distinct from those of other circulating strains.
Compared to the XBB. 1. 5 variant, which caused a wave earlier this year and was selected to be targeted by the upcoming fall booster injections, BA. 2. 86 has 36 mutations. Sequences of the first Omicron variants in 2021 also showed a similar number of mutations. , compared to the original virus strain.
Mutations in BA. 2. 86 come with changes in key elements of the virus that can evade the body’s immune defenses against past infections or vaccines.
Authorities technically follow BA. 2. 86 as part of the Omicron variant circle, although the WHO told reporters it could be replaced if the strain spreads more widely.
“We will use a Greek letter when we have a variant of fear and hesitate to use those Greek letters if necessary,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, said on 25 August.
We may soon know more about the effects of the strain, thanks to experiments conducted by scientists testing for mutations of the strain opposed to antibodies to the virus.
Among them is Professor Yunglong Cao of Peking University, whose immediate tests of the variants’ ability to dodge antibodies have played a key role in helping world governments assess the threats they pose beyond strains. Cao told CBS News on Aug. 24 that he expected to learn about BA. 2. 86 “early next week. “
At least 24 infections have been reported to the GISAID viral database or announced through health authorities. As of August 30, 10 were in Denmark, 4 in Sweden, 3 in the United States, two in South Africa, two in Portugal, one in Israel, one in the United Kingdom, and one in Canada.
Several countries have also reported symptoms of spread of the variant by testing wastewater in spaces that have not yet detected human cases, the United States added.
No deaths have been reported, according to an Aug. 24 WHO report.
None of the early cases had an “epidemiological link” between them, a U. N. official said Aug. 25, nor did they have weakened immune systems. Experts hypothesized that earlier, highly mutated variants had arisen in immunocompromised patients battling persistent infections.
The first case reported in the United States was reported from a pattern collected on Aug. 3, according to metadata reported to GISAID through a University of Michigan lab. A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health said the pattern was taken from an adult living in Washtenaw County. state.
A second U. S. case of BA. 2. 86 reported to GISAID from a pattern collected on August 10 at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Contractors for the CDC’s airport testing program had detected the case in a woman who had traveled from Japan to Washington, D. C. Airport in the area.
The third U. S. case of BA. 2. 86 was detected in Ohio, a spokesperson for the state fitness division told CBS News. Records reported to GISAID show it comes from a pattern taken at the Cleveland clinic on July 29 from a 26-year-old man. Elderly patient in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
New York has become the fourth country to report the variant, after detecting unique mutations of BA. 2. 86 in New York City wastewater. Ohio had shown in the past that it was also investigating with CDC a “preliminary detection” of BA. 2. 86. s unique mutations in their sewers. So far, no other state has reported BA. 2. 86 in its wastewater, a CDC spokesperson said Aug. 30.
Scientists in several other countries have also reported at least initial symptoms of the strain in their sewers, according to Sorin Sion, of the EU’s SARS-CoV-2 wastewater tracking system, which includes Denmark, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
Marc Johnson, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri, said on social media that the detection in Ohio was based on effects published as part of the CDC’s sewer testing program. They were first published on August 17, from a pattern collected in late July in the town of Elyria, Ohio.
Current COVID-19 tests still work for BA. 2. 86, early analyses suggest.
“Based on the data available at this time, the FDA believes that most existing tests used to detect COVID-19 appear to be effective with this variant,” FDA spokesman James McKinney said in an Aug. 28 email.
McKinney said the FDA continues to review the functionality of existing COVID-19 tests, adding them as a component of an ongoing relationship with a National Institutes of Health program that manually rechecks tests on new samples of the virus. The health government is also making detailed computer models that we can expect when variants escape existing testing.
Tests that reduced the functionality of BA. 2. 86 will be indexed on the FDA’s website, McKinney said.
“The company will update this page as new data becomes available, adding when FDA analyses identify tests whose functionality may be affected simply by known variants of SARS-CoV-2,” McKinney said.
By 2021, NIH efforts had detected the first signs that the functionality of actual tests was waning for new variants of Omicron. After all, the FDA has begun urging Americans to repeat testing with immediate COVID-19 antigen testing at home, after NIH-backed scientists demonstrated an accumulation of false-negative results.
There are some promising early anecdotes, but for now it is too early to know for sure that BA. 2. 86 will cause new symptoms or worsen.
The Michigan Department of Health said the case concerned “an elderly user with mild symptoms who was not hospitalized. “The Virginia traveler is asymptomatic, based on metadata submitted through CDC contractors.
The Ohio Department of Health declined to say his case had been hospitalized. A spokesperson for the Cleveland Clinic said they are sending the state “a random subset of our COVID positives that includes inpatients and outpatients” for sequencing.
In Denmark, the country’s Statens Serum Institute said the first 3 cases showed no symptoms “other than those normally seen during COVID-19. “The Canadian health government did the same about his case, which was not hospitalized.
“What we would like to make sure we perceive is the full spectrum of disease caused by BA. 2. 86. My caveat in giving a lot of details about this is that I want to draw conclusions from 8 or nine patients. “said Van Kerkhove of the WHO.
The emergence of the strain comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations had already risen across the country, driven by less mutated variants. So far, those trends appear to worsen further after the first observations of the strain.
“At this time, locations where this variant has been detected have not noted an accumulation of signs of transmission (e. g. , cases, emergency room visits) or hospitalizations disproportionate to those seen in nearby locations,” the CDC said. Published on August 23.
Future vaccines deserve assistance with BA. 2. 86, much remains to be known.
The emergence of the variant comes as health officials prepare for the rollout of new COVID-19 vaccines next month, which are expected to be available within a while after a meeting of outside CDC vaccine advisors on Sept. 12.
These injections were designed to target the XBB. 1. 5 variant, which, at the time of the Food and Drug Administration’s election in June, was considered the most suitable option to further expand immunity to the virus.
If BA. 2. 86 becomes dominant, Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, told CBS News that mutations in the strain may be enough to make those injections unsuitable for fending off viral infections.
However, Bloom says the body’s other immune defenses can still help mitigate the danger of the strain. The CDC says it is recently comparing that the updated vaccine “will be effective in reducing severe illness and hospitalizations. “
“I would like to point out that while strain-specific neutralizing antibodies (from which new variants would possibly escape) offer the most productive coverage against infection, there are also broader vaccine- and infection-induced immunity mechanisms that offer some coverage. against serious illnesses,” Bloom said in an Aug. 17 email to CBS News.