July 18, 2022: Will Omicron’s new subvariant, BA. 2. 75, be a cause for concern?
It was first discovered in early June in India. As of July 17, it had been discovered in 15 countries, adding seven U. S. states. According to a professor at Arkansas State University who followed the variant.
The World Health Organization says it is closely following the variant.
Infectious disease experts say there’s no cause for alarm, for now, but the variant wants to be monitored.
“Although it was detected in many other countries [besides India], there is no indication that it is spreading [in those countries],” says Eric Topol, MD, editor-in-chief of Medscape, WebMD’s sister for healthcare professionals, and executive vice president of Scripps Research. “Any consideration of this variant seems misplaced, at least at this point. “
“I wouldn’t panic just yet,” Rajendram Rajnarayanan, PhD, associate dean for studies and associate professor at Arkansas State University, who is following BA. 2. 75.
But he worries about its spread. At present, he says, it is spreading faster than the BA. 5 variant in India. It predicts that BA. 2. 75 will then spread further to the UK (where it has already arrived) and then grow in the US. UU. ” That is precisely the trend noticed with all the other variants,” he says.
As of July 17, it had followed 14 instances in seven states: California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
By September, it may peak in the United States, he says. At present, BA. 2. 75. seems to be the fastest of all” in terms of spread. But like other variants, it can adhere to the 2-month cycle and start decreasing until October, Rajnarayanan says.
In laboratory research published on Twitter, Professor Yunlong Cao of Peking University found that BA. 2. 75 is more likely than BA. 2. 12. 1 (which, before BA. 5, the dominant variant in the United States) is more likely to evade detection through the immune system.
But laboratory research “is part of the equation,” says Peter Chin-Hong, MD, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Many other things influence the spread of a variant. “It’s too early to say from the point of view of the virus what’s going to happen,” he says of the new variant.
While infectious disease experts debate the course of 2. 75, some are also discussing the name of the variants. The World Health Organization uses letters of the Greek alphabet to name certain variants.
But on July 1, Twitter user Xabier Ostale, who is not an infectious disease professional, grew tired of waiting for BA. 2. 75 to receive a Greek call and took on the task. In a tweet, he named the new variant Centaur, after a constellation and Greek mythology that describes a half-human, half-horse creature. The call has been kept and is now popular on Twitter and in news reports.
Having a call, rather than a string of letters and numbers, helps messages reach the public, says Rajnarayanan, who began #Centaurus in his Twitter posts. It encourages the World Health Organization to call all variants. there are other people who have something simple to do,” he says.
Eric Topol, MD, editor-in-chief, Medscape; Executive Vice President, Scripps Research, La Jolla, California.
Rajendram Rajnarayanan, PhD, Associate Dean of Research and Associate Professor, New York Institute of Technology School of Osteopathic Medicine, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro.
Peter Chin-Hong, MD, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist, University of California, San Francisco.
World Health Organization: “Keynote address through the WHO Director-General at the Member States’ briefing on COVID-19 and other issues”, nine July 2022.
Twitter: @yunlong_cao, July 15, 2022; @xabitron1, July 1, 2022.
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