So far, with no official name and undetermined origin, one coronavirus strain may be more dangerous than the previous ones. Experts interviewed by the British newspaper The Mirror said that the virus, which has been identified so far in Israel and Denmark, may have reached the United Kingdom and the United States. Although the post calls the mutant strain BA.6, the World Health Organization (WHO) has not, at the moment, registered the mutant virus – the latest version of Sars-CoV-2 updated by the UN agency is eris. (XBB. 1.9.2), rated as important 1 week ago. It is found in England, the United States and China.
According to Brazilian researcher Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Responses and Innovations in South Africa, there is a lot of discussion among scientists about the three highly mutated omicron sequences that have been proven to be discovered, so far, in Denmark and Israel. “It is under discussion whether this is the modified BA.2 or the new strain BA.6,” he explained on Twitter.
The sequence was discovered by American science professor Ryan Hesner. The subject of a recent report in the journal Nature, the professor from rural Monroe (Indiana) has caught the attention of virologists because of his ability to detect unusual mutations in Sars-Cov-2. It voluntarily analyzes huge amounts of data in search of changes that could lead to the emergence of a new variant.
The first sequence traced by Hessner was in an Israeli sample last Sunday. The professor said on Twitter that scientists currently prefer to name the potential strain BA.X and stated that it contains more than 30 mutations in the spike protein. It is similar to the number of changes in BA.1 that appeared last year compared to its predecessor.
is reading: What is known about BQ.1 and XBB, subvariants of ômicrom.
“Trackers are watching BA. Guelph, Canada. “But it is an interesting and potentially worrying variable,” he says, highlighting the “potential” because so little is known about it.
Registration in more than one country also attracts attention, according to Gregory. He added: “The fact that it has been identified in Israel and Denmark is a bit concerning because it is clearly not limited to one area. Additionally, these are places where it is still being sequenced. So it is very likely that it has not been detected in some other country.” “, he explains.
Publishing
Scientists, citing The Mirror, stated that the variant will soon be identified in the United Kingdom and the United States. “I'm sure it's already there,” said Thomas Moore, an infectious disease specialist from the University of Kansas. “If not, it's probably going to be very soon.” In a tweet published by the newspaper, Trisha Greenhalgh, a primary health care expert at Oxford University, advised Britons to return to wearing face masks.
“My various science WhatsApp groups are buzzing. Genetic pedigree charts are flying back and forth. I only understand a few details, but it seems it's time to put the mask back on.”
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Christina Pagel, a mathematician at University College London and a member of the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Immunization Experts (Sage), published an article two days ago on the website of the medical journal The British Medical Journal in which she expressed her concern about the new variant. While acknowledging that BA. “It has a greater potential to cause a large wave (of cases),” he warned.
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