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The European Union’s disease control agency has good news and bad news when it comes to XBB.1.5, the coronavirus sub-variant nicknamed Kraken that’s spreading across the US and around the world Keeping epidemiologists awake at night.
The bad news is that XBB.1.5 is spreading fast, most likely because it has some major advantages over the currently dominant Omicron strains. The good news is Europe has had some time to prepare If and when matters become vertical.
“There is a possibility that this variant may have an increased impact on the number of COVID-19 cases in the EU/EEA, but not within the coming month as the variant is currently only present at very low levels in the EU/EEA,” The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) writes in its recent assessment of XBB.1.5.
WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead Maria van Kerkhove on Wednesday Told that the health agency was concerned about how quickly the sub-variant was replacing other variants in circulation. In the US, it increased from 4 percent of cases to 40 percent in a matter of weeks, According To the White House COVID-19 response coordinator.
However, it is not yet known whether it causes more serious infections.
The ECDC writes that the high speed of spread is likely due to XBB.1.5’s ability to dodge immune system protection provided by previous infections or vaccinations. It also has mutations on its spike protein – the part of the virus that binds to host cells – that may confer some advantage.
For now, the sub-variant is only a blip on the radar in Europe, the ECDC said, although it has been detected in Denmark, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, and Sweden. , Belgium, Czech Republic, Portugal and Ireland. Data coming in from the US shows that XBB.1.5 is spreading aggressively, with cases doubling every nine days.
The danger is that the explosion of cases coincides with an already tough influenza and respiratory syncytial virus season, stressful hospital, In Belgium, public health officials declared flu epidemic Due to rising cases, it is expected to peak in three or four weeks.
But just because the sub-variant is exploding in the US doesn’t mean Europe will soon be in the eye of the storm. ,[M]Large differences in the prevalence of the variant have been observed between North America and Europe at various times during the pandemic,” writes the ECDC.