2023-08-08 17:02:30
FOCUS – The EG.5 strain would now be the most widespread in France. The WHO added it to its list of variants to watch in mid-July.
EG.5. Here is the technical name of the new variant of Covid-19, also nicknamed “Eris“. The latter, added to thea list of variants to watch out for by the World Health Organization in mid-July, would now be the most widespread in France.
According to a graph from Gisaid, a reference database which allows monitoring of Covid-19, the EG.5 strain is now present in nearly 35% of the viruses sequenced in France. All other variants show less occurrence. This dominance of Eris could thus be at the origin of the slight resurgence of Covid-19 the last days. Explanations.
20% increase in the UK
«Note that there are sampling biases.“Says from the outset Mircea Sofonea, lecturer at the University of Montpellier, referring to the 35%. This percentage should be takenwith caution“, he underlines, because “it concerns a limited number of positive tests, knowing that these are also not representative of infections“. The researcher however insists on the fact that the French data align “with the estimates we have for other countries».
The UK, our colleagues from Forbes estimated that nearly 15% of infections were caused by this new strain and that this figure was increasing by 20% per week. “Same in the United Stateswhere the variant is gaining traction, reports academic Mircea Sofonea.
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Immune escape
But where does it come from? “It belongs to the Omicron group and more precisely to the lineage XBB », Details the lecturer in Montpellier. “it’s about the XBB.1.9 subline which gained two successive mutations“. According to the researchers, these mutations would most certainly be associated with an advantage because they are found in other lines, allowing specialists to speak of “evolutionary convergence“. What advantage? Better transmissibility.
Eris «is more advantaged from the point of view of the transmission and it is also from the point of view of the’immune escape,” says academic Mircea Sofonea. Concretely, the new variant is more resistant to antibodies thanks to its mutation and the vaccine therefore becomes less effective. If there is a gain in transmissibility, there is however no data concerning the virulence of the latter. “There is no signal on this subject, nor on the symptomatology, nor on the severity“, continues the professor.
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Immune decline
Thus, this new variant could explain the slight increase in cases, without overcoming it. “There is a combination of factors“, he explains. Among which : “immune escape, increased contagiousness” but also “the natural immune decline of the population“. The French gradually lose the effect of their vaccines or their previous contaminations and are less attentive to the transmission of the disease. “The context is favorable to the resumption of the epidemic“, he decides before specifying:”There is always viral evolution with immune escape and lack of tracking».
Specialists are now turning to the start of the school year. “The question that will have to be asked is what we will do when the immunity rate drops and the (weather) conditions are a little wetter and more favorable to the virus, probably at the start of the school year or in winter.“, already explained Professor Philippe Amouyel, on Monday August 7 at the Figaro . The next few months are therefore to be watched closely.
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