It does not appear in the PCR analysis… What is the new “occult omicron” mutant?
Amman Today
publish date 2022-01-29 09:00:49
While the Omicron mutant continues to spread rapidly in most parts of the world, especially in the European continent, a number of scientists are monitoring the new mutant of the Corona virus, which they called “BA.2”, which is a new derivative of the Omicron mutant, according to a report published by “The Scientist” magazine. The Scientist, who reported that it spreads somewhat faster than Omicron.
It is reported that preliminary information indicated that it does not appear in the PCR analysis, so some have gone to call it “invisible omicron”.
The Omicron mutant was responsible for the faster spread of Corona in Europe, Asia and the United States, during the last period.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the highest health authority in the United States, the new version of the BA.2 Omicron mutant is spreading rapidly in some European countries, such as Denmark. Cases of “BA.2” were detected in California and Texas, in the United States.
“Of all the corona mutant, Omicron was the fastest spreading,” Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, of the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, told CNN.
Scientists in India were able to document some differences between the omicron mutant and the derived mutant “BA.2”, as there is a slight difference in the “shape” of the protein.
Cameron Wolf, an infectious disease expert at Duke University School of Medicine, told NBC News: “You could say they are like brothers, from the same family, where there are slight differences, but most of the genes are similar. in both.”
And Gabriel Leung, dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, believes that “a mutant derivative of Omicron may spread faster than the original mutant, by 35%.”
And the scientists say they don’t yet know “how differences might affect Omicron’s behaviour”.
And if the Omicron mutant has the advantage that it does not cause serious symptoms that require hospitalization, but it has more than 30 mutations in the spinal protein on the surface of the virus (Spike protein), which has lost the vaccines that were designed according to the composition of this protein in the original strain, a lot of effectiveness .
According to James Crowe, a professor at the American “Vanderbilt University” Center for Vaccines, the sub-mutant of Omicron “BA.2”, which is difficult to monitor by the PCR test, “The virulence of this mutant is not clear so far, and it is not available Sufficient data to indicate whether this variant is more resistant to approved vaccines or antibodies.
#PCR #analysis #occult #omicron #mutant
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