xbb.1.5, a new omicorn subvariant, is the “most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet,” according to the world health organization (who).
maria van kerkhove, an epidemiologist and the who’s technical lead on covid, told reporters at a press conference in geneva on wednesday that the subvariant is spreading at an alarming rate.
“we are concerned about its growth advantage,” van kerkhove said. xbb.1.5 was first detected in the u.s., where it has spread considerably, and has since been identified in 29 other countries.
“we do expect further waves of infection around the world, but that doesn’t have to translate into further waves of death because our countermeasures continue to work,” she added.
xbb.1.5 likely emerged when someone was infected with two different kinds of omicron at the same time, dr. ewan harrison of the
wellcome sanger institute in cambridge told bbc news: “a
bit of the genome from one virus gets joined up with another bit from a second virus, and they merge, and that goes on to transmit.”
how does xbb.1.5 work?
xbb.1.5 grips very tightly to our cells, which lets it avoid our antibodies, science writer katherine j. wu explains in the atlantic. that allows the virus to replicate easily. but the good news is that the mutation, called f486p, also reduces the virus’ ability to infect our cells, bbc news says.
and while the subvariant is easier to catch than previous strains, there are currently no signs that it causes more severe illness than any other strain.
singapore was hit hard
by the very similar xbb strain in the fall, but hospitalizations didn’t rise significantly in the country.