2023-12-13 18:12:27
Covid infections are increasing. In Italy they could grow for another 3-4 weeks and also in our country it is necessary to pay attention to the Pirola variant and in particular to a ‘new version’. The variant identified with the acronym BA.2.86 together with its ‘family’ is “constantly increasing” globally. This was reported by the World Health Organization, after the last meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on the composition of the Covid vaccine (Tag-Co-Vac), on 4 and 5 December. The symptoms linked to Pirola are represented by a fever of 38 degrees that lasts a few days, constant headaches and a cold often accompanied by cough and sore throat. In this period, with the Christmas holidays upon us, it is easy to mistake this clinical picture for seasonal flu.
Experts suggest continuing with the current ‘recipe’ of the vaccine updated to Kraken (XBB.1.5), considering it effective against the circulating variants, highlighting however that “Sars-CoV-2 continues to circulate and evolve”, and “strongly encouraging ” to continue with viral surveillance and monitoring of response to vaccines.
“As of 2 December 2023 – WHO informs in a note – the descendant lineages of XBB, including XBB.1.5, 73% of the genetic sequences available” on the “Gisaid” platform and this proportion has decreased since then. Opposite trend for ‘Pirola & Co.’: “The share of BA.2.86 and its descendant lineages, including JN.1, is constantly increasing. As of December 2, BA.2.86 and its descendant lineages, including JN.1, represented 17% of the sequences available in Gisaid, over half of which were JN.1”.
“The variant of interest BA.2.86, the first sample of which was collected in July 2023 – reminds the WHO – presents 36 amino acid substitutions compared to XBB.1.5”, also in “key antigenic sites in the Spike protein”. But why should we pay particular attention to the JN.1 ‘version’? “Compared to BA.2.86, it has an additional substitution in the Spike protein.”
“I think great attention is needed”, highlights Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the State University of Milan, to time.news Salute. In Italy, in particular, “we are in a phase of growth that the epidemiological data do not highlight so much because there is certainly an underestimation”, but which “is observable by everyone” and will continue “for at least 3-4 weeks, considering the transmissibility index”.
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