New variants of Covid are spreading across the globe, sparking concerns among experts about an increase in cases in the summer in the US and Britain, which will threaten the immunity of the population.
KP.2 - one of the variants of Omicron's JN.1 strain known by the nickname FliRT after the names of mutations in their genetic code - has evolved since appearing in the US last March into a dominant strain of Covid and until May 11 was responsible for 28,2% of cases, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The KP1.1 variant. is also spreading rapidly and is responsible for 7,6% of Covid cases in the US, while these two variants are responsible for four out of ten cases in Britain and the increase in hospital admissions.
These variants spread to Canada, Australia, Thailand and India and have been identified in dozens of countries, including Italy, Spain and Portugal, Ireland and Scandinavian countries.
Four and a half years after the outbreak of the pandemic, cases of Covid have fallen to record rates in the US in recent months.
And while there is no indication that the new variants will cause an increase in serious infections, and infectious disease experts do not expect an increase in hospital admissions, they warn that cases of Covid could soar in the summer. "Recent data shows that Covid cases are increasing. This is extremely dangerous because Covid has a 35% higher mortality rate than influenza, based on data from last winter," said Dr Mary Ramsay, Director of Public Health Programs at the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA). For his part, Dr. John Brownstein, professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Informatics at Harvard, emphasized that "given the seasonal variation of Covid, we expect an increase in cases in the summer" and recommended continued surveillance and efforts to vaccinate the population.
Are existing vaccines effective?
A key question is whether existing Covid vaccines are effective against the new strains of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. And University of Warwick infectious disease specialist Laurence Young recommends vaccination with booster doses, which will provide protection against at least severe disease.
Vanderbilt University of Tennessee infectious disease expert William Schaffner, however, notes that vaccine protection "is not as guaranteed against these subvariants because the mutations are a little bit further from the kind of antibody protection that we got from a previous infection and vaccination. But this is evidence from laboratory studies, we have to see what happens in the field," he added.
What is happening in Europe?
The World Health Organization said FliRT variants have been identified in 14 countries in Europe as well as Israel, but, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Elimination, Covid activity has remained "low" on the old continent, if and in "individual countries a slight increase in cases is recorded".
At the same time, he noted that he had observed a "limited number" of cases of the JN1.7 and KP.2 variants.
Professor of Medicine at the University of East Anglia, Paul Hunter, stressed that although there is little evidence that FliRT variants are more contagious, they probably have increased immune evasion, "and this, in a population with declining immunity, may contribute to the spread of Covid ».
Source: iefimerida.gr
