With the end of the fifth wave on the horizon: A new study published last week in Japan suggests that the new variant BA.2 may cause more severe disease than the omicron variant.
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According to the study – published in News 12 – the new variant is more contagious than Omicron, and is even able to bypass vaccines. Unlike omicron, it can lead to more severe disease and may also be resistant to some of the treatments found to be effective against omicron.
According to the study, BA.2 is about 30% to 50% more contagious than Omicron.
The findings were published as a study before peer review. Typically, before publishing a study in a medical journal, it is reviewed by independent experts.
The study found that BA.2 underwent a high mutation compared to the original virus and that there were also dozens of changes in genes different from the omicron strain. In fact, the new variant differs from the Omicron in a similarly differentiated way between the alpha, beta, gamma and delta versions.
According to researchers at the University of Tokyo, where the study was conducted, these findings show that BA.2 should not be considered as a type of omicron and should be monitored more closely.
The American Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 4% of American corona patients have contracted the new variant.
Extensive parts of the world have more experience with it: BA.2 has become dominant in Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, Guam, India, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines and more.
“As we all know, variant BA.2 is called ‘stealth omicron’ because it does not appear in PCR tests and therefore needs to be taken one step further and sequence tests performed to locate it,” explained Dr. Kai Sato, one of the study’s leaders. “Finding a way to identify the variant quickly will be the first step to take against it.”
However, in countries where the new variant has gained a significant foothold, such as South Africa or the United Kingdom, the downward trend in the number of hospitalizations continues.
In Denmark, on the other hand, morbidity data are on the rise and so are deaths.