The World Health Organization Investigates two new ones Omicron Subvariants to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous than their predecessor.
Both BA.4 and BA.5 have been added to the Agency’s monitoring list. The first has already been revealed Scotland And EnglandAccording to the United Kingdom Health Insurance Agency (UKHSA), the two countries will report one case by March 30th.
In a version released by the UKHSA last week, health officials said both versions contained “potentially biologically significant mutations.”
Globally, only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported in GISAID, the global database that controls the distribution of variants.
The World Health Organization says it has begun tracking two sub-variants for their “additional mutations, which should be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential.”
Both BA.4 and BA.5 cases were reported in South Africa and Botswana, while Denmark also detected the first.
The earliest BA.4 specimen reported to GISAID was from South Africa, with a specimen collection date of 10 January 2022.
However, the accumulation and geographical distribution of genomes is more recent, suggesting that “the option is moving successfully,” the UKHSA said in a recent report.
Viruses are mutated, but only certain mutations affect their ability to spread or prevent previous immunity from vaccination or infection, or the severity of the disease they cause.
For example, BA.2 now accounts for almost 94 percent of all consecutive cases and is more contagious than its sibling, but so far evidence suggests it does not cause serious illness.
