A new case detected what questions. For the first time, a person has tested positive in France for the BA.2.86 variant, this announcement recalls that the Covid-19 virus, although it is no longer considered a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) since May, it is still present in France. What variants and sub-variants are currently active in the territory?
• The Pirola variant, the last detected
The new variant BA.2.86, nicknamed Pirola on social media, has just been detected for the first time in France, in the Grand Est region, Public Health France announced Thursday.
This Omicron subvariant, identified in mid-August, has the particularity of having some thirty additional mutations of the Spike gene, a very high number. This means that “it is likely to evolve more significantly and spread more easily,” according to the president of the Health Risk Monitoring and Forecasting Committee (Covars), Brigitte Autran.
“The appearance of this new variant is still too early to be able to assess its characteristics and its impact on public health,” estimates Public Health France for the moment.
Classified among the variants monitored by the WHO, it is, however, the object of special attention. Only 25 sequences have been detected worldwide so far, according to a latest report published on Thursday.
• Eris, the most frequent
The EG.5 variant, also called Eris, is the most detected variant in France according to the latest Public Health France bulletin. Increasing in recent weeks, it now represents 34% of the detected cases, counting all its sublineages, as of July 31.
It was classified at the beginning of August among the variants to be monitored by the WHO, after the increase in its incidence rate in various regions of the world, both in Europe, Asia and North America.
The symptoms of this variant are similar to those of Omicron, including sore throat, cough, headache, sneezing, or muscle aches.
“The global health risk related to EG.5 (…) is assessed as low worldwide by the WHO”, indicates Public Health France.
• The XBB.1.16 variant, below
The XBB.1.16 variant, dubbed Arcturus by some researchers, is currently in decline. Still classified among the variants to follow, it represents 16% of the interpretable sequences, as of July 31, compared to 23% on July 10, according to Public Health France.
The recombinant variant XBB, is not a combinaison between two sous-variants of Omicron, it was detected in its debut year, notably in India, ahead of the contamination returns in several regions of the world, in Singapore and the United States USA.
In addition to XBB.1.16, several subvariants of the same lineage have been identified, including XBB.1.5 in particular, which aroused the concern of the European health authorities last January, when it was the most transmissible subvariant since the beginning of the pandemic. A new mRNA vaccine specifically targeting this subvariant was approved this week.
There is also the XBB.1.9 variant which represents 18% of the sequences, a stable trend, and from which Eris is derived, and the XBB.2.3 variant, which represents 16% of the sequences.
• Multiple low level variants
Health authorities have identified other subvariants of Omicron, but at lower rates. Thus, BA.2.75 and CH.1.1 each represent less than 1% of the interpretable sequences.
Since the beginning of the year, most of the variants identified in France come from Omicron’s XBB sublineage and have similar characteristics, none of them being very clearly predominant.
The evolution of these variants seems particularly complex: more than three years after the start of the Covid pandemic, the population is no longer regularly tested.
Source: BFM TV
