A new Covid sub-variant, XBB.1.5, is causing some concern in the United States, where it is spreading rapidly with some cases been recorded in the United Kingdom as well.
Experts fear that the concurrent spread of the XBB. 1.5 and the COVID-19 could cause more havoc than already exists if a cure is not found in time.
The XBB.1.5 is yet another offshoot of the globally-dominant Omicron Covid variant. Omicron has outperformed the earlier Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta coronavirus variants since emerging in the later part 2021, and has given rise to many more contagious sub-variants.
XBB.1.5 evolved from XBB, which began circulating in the UK in September 2022, with a mutation that helped it beat the body’s immune defences, but this same quality also reduced its ability to infect human cells.
Symptoms of XBB.1.5 are thought to be similar to those of previous Omicron strains. Most people experience cold-like symptoms also.
BBC reported that Prof Wendy Barclay from Imperial College London said XBB.1.5 has a mutation known as F486P, which restores this ability to bind to cells while continuing to evade immunity. That makes it spread more easily.
She said these evolutionary changes were like “stepping stones”, as the virus evolves to find new ways of bypassing the body’s defence mechanisms.
Dr Ewan Harrison of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge thinks XBB.1.5 probably emerged when someone got infected with two different Omicron types.
He said, “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.”
While the World Health Organization confirmed that XBB.1.5 has a “growth advantage” over other sub-variants seen so far, it has said there was no indication so far that it was more serious or harmful than previous Omicron variants.
According to Centers for Disease Control estimates, nearly 28% of Covid cases in the US in the first week of January were caused by XBB.1.5
Covid hospital admissions have been rising in recent weeks across the US, and the government has restarted its free testing programme.
It looks likely that the UK had five Omicron waves in 2022, and further spikes in cases seem inevitable.
NHS England has said the fears of a “twindemic” of Covid and flu have already been realised, with both viruses putting strain on an already stretched NHS.
