Health reported that in Spain cases have been detectedin a timely manner» of a new subvariants of omicrons, XBB.1.5, known as Kraken and already present in the Basque Country and Madrid, which has been expanding rapidly in the United States and some inland countries for weeks Europe.
According to the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) epidemiological report published by Health, the XBB.1.5 lineage, which derives from the XBB already detected weeks ago, but without proliferation, “it’s expanding” mainly in the United Stateswhere it would have exceeded 25% in the first week of January».
Last week, the Department of Health of the Basque government reported on the detection of the first infections of the variant known as Kraken – not related to China – and classified the cases as cases «sporadic», while the Community of Madrid has given its voice on the first sequenced, so that they amount to 5 detected in Spain.
The Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases of the Hospital Gregory Maranon detected the first sequenced case in the Community of Madrid of the XBB1.5 variant of Covid, a sublineage of Ómicron and better known as Kraken.
Specifically, the case diagnosed in the region corresponds to a male of 63 years old with flu-like symptoms for five days, which presents a good evolution and did not require hospitalization.
The Ministry of Health of Madrid itself underlined that «there is no scientific evidence that this variant has vaccine escape» or presenting a clinical diagnosis «More serious», even if it seems «more transmissible.
The World Health Organization (WHO) it also warned last week of rising cases of the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 in Europe and the United States, and that some experts in the North American country see the potential to cause a new wave of infections.
WHO explained that this subvariant results from a recombination of the BA.2 subvariates (one of the variants that caused the outbreak of cases in the first omicron wave) and estimated that it has already been detected in more than 25 countries.
In Spain, the CCAES explains in its report that this subvariant “has a mutation at position 486 (F486P) which gives it the ability to evade the response to antibodies already exhibiting XBB or XBB.1” and that “it could imply a higher transmission capacity» compared to the original variant.
So far, Health has detected an increase in BQ.1 lineages and its derivatives such as BQ.1.1 in random screenings since November, which also dominate in other European countries and have not caused marked increases or increased severity in cases .
82.6% of all randomized samples in the last few weeks in the Autonomous Communities belong to the BQ.1 and derived variants, while the wastewater report still shows a predominance of BA.4 and BA.5, which caused the seventh summer wave.
GROWTH ADVANTAGE
Currently, this lineage is estimated to have a large growth advantage over lineages that circulated previously North America (109%) and Europe (113%)although ECDC points out that these estimates “are associated with significant uncertainty”.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the current percentage of the variant at around 27.6% in the U.S. “Due to the uncertainty associated with the estimate, it is not yet clear whether the variant will become dominant in United States in the coming weeks.
On the other hand, ECDC defended that the “rapid growth” of this subvariant in the US”does not necessarily mean that the variant will be dominant in the EU, as large differences in variant circulation between North America and Europe have been observed at various times during the pandemic.
Symptoms
Therefore, the symptoms are similar to those produced by other variants. And in this case it is omicron what dictates such signalswhich, on the other hand, are similar to the flu and other current constipations.
Thus, among the symptoms are sore throat, headache, fever, cough, general fatigue, runny nose, joint pain and even loss of taste and smell. Generally, symptoms are mild and do not require hospitalization being less severe than other previous variants.
While transmissibility is high, each variant is less serious, so say scientists they wonder if covid really is it is running out as the months go by.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have to be careful and continue with your respective vaccinations. Indeed, scientists determine that those patients who are infected and have been vaccinated with two booster doses usually have rather mild signs of a cold.
