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Omicron new variant of concern

Posted on November 27, 2021 by admin1  297

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The World Health Organization declared the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19  to be a variant of concern and renamed it Omicron based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology.

Image Courtesy: TH

About B.1.1.529 strain

  • The variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on November 24.
  • The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant. 
  • In recent weeks, infections have increased steeply, coinciding with the detection of the B.1.1.529 variant. 
    • The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021.
  • This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.
  • Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs.
  • Current SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostics continue to detect this variant. 

WHO classification

  • All viruses mutate over time, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19 disease.
  • In late 2020, the emergence of variants that posed an increased risk to global public health prompted the WHO to start characterising them as variants of interest, and the more-worrying variants of concern, to inform the response to the pandemic.

Variants of Interest (VOI)

  • A SARS-CoV-2 variant with genetic changes that are predicted or known to affect virus characteristics such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape; AND 
    • Identified to cause significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters, in multiple countries with increasing relative prevalence alongside an increasing number of cases over time, or other apparent epidemiological impacts to suggest an emerging risk to global public health.  

Variants of Concern (VOC)

  • A SARS-CoV-2 variant that meets the definition of a VOI and, through a comparative assessment, has been demonstrated to be associated with one or more of the following changes at a degree of global public health significance: 
  • Increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; OR
  • Increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; OR
  • Decrease in the effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics.

Image Courtesy: TOI

Source: TH

 
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