More than 40% of the United State’s recent Covid cases have been caused by the Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.5, revealed data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read on to know more about the super variant. Omicron Sub Variant XBB 1.5: 40% cases found in United States.
The highly contagious Omicron BA.2 sub-variant XBB.1.5 has become responsible for over 40 per cent of the recent Covid-19 cases in the United States, revealed data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Though many public health experts are expressing concern about the rising Covid cases in China, infectious disease, several experts are increasingly worried about the doubling super variant, XBB.1.5
“Ironically, probably the worst variant that the world is facing right now is actually XBB,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, in a recent interview.
What is XBB.1.5
Osterholm added that seven of the 10 states of the US where cases and hospitalisations are rising are in the Northeast, concurrent with an increase of XBB cases there, he said.
Recombinants of the BA.2 variant, XBB and XBB.1.5, together accounted for 44.1 per cent of the total cases in the country for the week ended December 31. For the week ended December 24, XBB.1.5 had made up 21.7 per cent of the total cases.
XBB was first identified in India in August. It quickly become dominant there, as well as in Singapore. It has since evolved into a family of subvariants including XBB.1 and XBB.1.5.
Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University, said XBB.1.5 is different from its family members because it has an additional mutation that makes it bind better to cells.
“The virus needs to bind tightly to cells to be more efficient at getting in and that could help the virus be a little bit more efficient at infecting people,” Pekosz said.
Why is XBB.1.5 highly Infectious
Yunlong Richard Cao, a scientist and assistant professor at Peking University, published data on Twitter Tuesday that indicated XBB.1.5 not only evades protective antibodies as effectively as the XBB.1 variant, which was highly immune evasive, but also is better at binding to cells through a key receptor.
Scientists at Columbia University have warned that the rise of subvariants such as XBB could “further compromise the efficacy of current Covid vaccines and result in a surge of breakthrough infections as well as re-infections.”
The XBB subvariants are also resistant to Evusheld, an antibody cocktail that many people with weak immune systems rely on for protection against Covid because they don’t mount a strong response to the vaccines.
The scientists described the resistance of the XBB subvariants to antibodies from vaccination and infection as “alarming.” The XBB subvariants were even more effective at dodging protection from the omicron boosters than the BQ subvariants.
Also Read: Omicron XXB 1.5 variant: Omicron’s new variant detection in India
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