2023-05-19 10:16:41
The World Health Organization (WHO) has included the XBB.2.3 variant of Sars-CoV-2, christened Acrux by social media experts, among the Covid variants under monitoring (Vum), after this mutant grew over 5 weeks, from 1.8% of the total sequences detected worldwide to 4.64% (last data, relating to April 24-30). This is what WHO explains in the latest weekly update on Covid.
At the moment the UN health agency has two Covid variants considered variants of interest (Voi) as ‘special observations’: the first is Kraken (XBB.1.5) which, although still the most detected in the world (in 110 countries ), has now been on a downward trend for weeks and fell to 43.8% of the total sequences in week 17 (from 24 to 30 April 2023); the other is Arturo (XBB.1.16) which instead continues to grow and, in the same week, is at 11.6%, reported by 49 countries.
The available evidence, explains the WHO, “does not show an increase in severity for descendant lineages of XBB. An epidemiological study conducted in Singapore to assess the severity of SARS-CoV-2 variants in 3,798 participants, found no significant differences in Covid infection or hospitalization outcomes among descendant lineages of XBB, including Arturo and Kraken.Furthermore, a recent laboratory study showed that XBB.1.16 and XBB.1.5 have similar immune evasion characteristics.In addition to Acrux, among the monitored variants have shown increasing trends in recent weeks Hyperion (XBB.1.9.1), which in week 17 accounted for 13.9% of the deposited sequences; XBB Gryphon (9.85%) and XBB.1.9.2 (4.1%).
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