Omicron BA.2 sub-strain should be upgraded as ‘variant of concern’, demands US health expert. Here’s why
A laboratory study on the BA.2 sub-strain of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, conducted recently in Japan, ended with the conclusion that it is ‘not only faster at spreading, but also likely to cause more severe disease.
’ The suggestion put forth by the exercise has prompted leading American public health scientist, Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, to demand that BA.2 be immediately declared as a ‘variant of concern’ (VoC).
Here’s what the research, conducted by a team led by experts from University of Tokyo, found:
(1.) Upon infecting hamsters with BA.1 and BA.2 sub-strains, it was discovered that the ones infected with BA.2 got sicker and developed worse lung infection. This was evident from tissues samples, as researchers found lungs of hamsters infected with BA.2 to be more damaged than those that got BA.1.
(2.) From neutralisational experiments, the team found that this latest subvariant, first detected in February this year in countries such as Denmark and the UK, is resistant to antibodies, developed from vaccination against Covid-19. This feature is present in the original Omicron as well.
(3.) Also, BA.2 was found resistant to the antibodies in people who were infected with the earlier variants of SARS-CoV-2, and ‘almost completely resistant’ to some monoclonal antibody treatments used to treat this disease.
(4.) The authors also noted that BA.2 has started ‘outcompeting’ BA.1. This, according to them, suggests that the latter is more transmissible than the original Omicron.
(5.) They further said that though BA.2 is considered as an Omicron variant, its genomic sequence differs vastly from that of BA.1. This is an evidence that the two sub-strains have completely different virological characteristics, the researchers said.
(6.) Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that though BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, it is not more severe.
(7.) Omicron was first detected in November last year, in Botswana and South Africa. Since then, the BA.1 subvariant has been found in many more countries and has also outcompeted earlier variants, such as Delta.