- New Corona variant XBB.1.5.
- So dangerous is the subline
- say that Experts |
Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach speaks out concerned: “Hopefully we can get through the winter before such a variant can spread to us,” he tweeted in early January. It’s about the new one Omicron Variant XBB.1.5. “We monitor, whether and how strong XBB.1.5. performs in Germany,” Lauterbach assures. But how dangerous is the Corona variant?
New corona variant: (no) reason to worry?
The omicron subline XBB.1.5. could also change in the coming weeks and months, according to experts spread in Europe and Germany. “One can say with some prognostic certainty that the variant also with us the dominant variant will be,” said the Bremen epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb to the German press agency.
The subline is easier to transfer than any of the previously known variants, Corona specialist Maria van Kerkhove from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday (January 4, 2023). It is assumed that XBB.1.5 has a “big growth advantage” Compared to the previously circulating lines in North America and Europe, the EU health authority ECDC announced on Thursday (January 5, 2023). However, this assumption is still known significant uncertainties tied together.
According to Zeeb, there is no reason to worry: “We are seeing a few more cases in the USA, but things are going well there not a giant wave from.” XBB.1.5 has been increasing in frequency rapidly in the Northeastern US and dominate there since mid-December the course of infection, said Richard Neher, head of the research group Evolution of Viruses and Bacteria at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. Outside of the northeastern United States, the variant is even less common, but the proportion is increasing.
Experts assess the situation: no new measures are necessary
“The basic variant is known since October“, said Zeeb, who is head of the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research. “It was seen for the first time that the combination of subvariants had occurred.” The special feature of XBB.1.5 is the even higher infectivity. “That had already been developed at Omicron , XBB.1.5 now tops that again.”
According to Neher there are so far little information on disease severity with the new sub line. Cases and hospitalizations have increased across the US, not just in regions where XBB.1.5 is prevalent, the expert said. This is at least a first indication that the severity of XBB.1.5 infections does not differ significantly from that of others currently circulating variants distinguish.
For Germany, this means: “XBB.1.5 encounters a decreasing immunity of people whose vaccination or infection long ago,” explained Zeeb. “First in the USA and then also here in Germany.” However, the number of XBB.1.5 records in Germany is currently still very low. “You have to not yet thinking about new measures.” The important thing is that monitor development closelysaid Zeeb. The ongoing sequencing of samples is very important and must be maintained at a high level.
XBB.1.5 will cause new contagions
Virologist Alexander Kekulé does not find the new virus variant worrying. “That is for me not worrying and it’s actually a normal process for viruses to mutate,” he explained in the MDR podcast.Kekulé’s corona compass“. If XBB.1.5 comes to Germany, new infections – also among vaccinated people – are likely, high death rates and hospital admissions but rather not.
