A new variation of Covid-19 has been detected in several countries around the world - including the United Kingdom, India, USA, Australia and Germany.
Named BA.2.75 - it's a subvariant of Omicron. You may have heard it also titled Centaurus, the name of a constellation which it was given by a social media user in recent weeks.
The World Health Organisation has classified the new strain at a 'variant of interest' rather than a variant of concern, which means that it is being monitored. However, there is not yet evidence that it will cause problems alike the Alpha and Delta strains of the virus.
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Wales Online reports that the number of recorded BA.2.75 infections are still relatively low, with most UK infections driven by the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. BA.5 in particular is still thought to be dominant in a similar fashion in other countries where BA.2.75 has been detected thus far.
However, the newer variant is becoming more common in India, where it was first detected earlier this year in May, suggesting that it has advantages over current circulating strains. Some have also noted that BA.2.75 is spreading in regions of the Asian country where it doesn't have to compete with BA.5, but rather with the variant it evolved from in BA.2.
With that being said, some data from India indicates that the new subvariant may have already peaked - and importantly, there has failed to be a substantial increase in hospitalisations or deaths from it. Given the facts, BA.2.7 has quickly gained an additional nickname of a 'scariant'.
Why are we still seeing new variants?
While most of the global population has been vaccinated, infected, or both, variants which are able to infect despite immunisation have a steady advantage. So, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which began Covid-19) is constantly evolving to gain this.
New variants have mutations which evade our immunity and will replicate and spread - which will in turn lead to waves of infections. We've seen this most recently with BA.4 and BA.5. The memory immune system will automatically recognise infections based on molecular strains of viruses and other pathogens, however, even slight mutations can make it more difficult for our immune systems to recognise and respond. This is often known as 'immune evasion'.
The concern revolving around BA.2.75 is that it has picked up a number of mutations, which may indicate that it can evade immunity altogether. However, there's no good evidence at this stage on that it can evade the immune system in a significant way. Most of BA.2.75 is structurally identical to Omicron and the original Alpha strain, and is not fundamentally a different virus.
Although our immune systems response to Omicron may not be enough to stop reinfection, it should reduce the severity of a BA.2.7 infection. And while there are also other concerns that the new subvariant may spread quickly, there is again no clear evidence.
It appears that an increase has already occurred, which has since levelled off or even dropped relative to a few weeks ago. If this is the case, there is a chance that it could even fizzle out entirely in the near future.
Improving vaccines could be our best shot
Thanks to vaccination, if we were to face a substantial wave of BA.2.75, we wouldn't expect the levels of deaths and hospitalisations seen earlier throughout the pandemic. However, we do know that large numbers of cases can cause significant disruption - and more importantly, the constant wave of new variants still poses a substantial threat to the vulnerable,
One solution to overcome this could well be in the form of a universal Covid-19 vaccine - which would work against any variant. The aim of a universal vaccination would induce immunity against a wide range of molecular structures. On the other hand, a pan coronavirus vaccine is a similar concept, but would likely try to induce immunity in all molecular structures common to all Coronaviruses.
As well as proving effective to repel new SARS-CoV-2 variants, a pan vaccine might also confer immunity against the next Covid-19 pandemic altogether. Some of these vaccinations look to set a move into clinical trials over the span of the next few years.
A second solution is to provide vaccines which induce better immunity and aid the respiratory system. These largely involve vaccines given nasally, training the immune system to make more antibodies in the mucus of the nose and throat. This sort of immunity may help stop the SARS virus from infecting and replicating at the point of entry into our cells, which could in-turn slow down the rate at which new variants have the opportunity to emerge. At least 12 of these intranasal vaccines are currently conducting clinical trials.
Ben Krishna, Postdoctoral Researcher, Immunology and Virology, University of Cambridge
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.
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