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9 August 2023 by Valeria Roman
www.infobae.com
The virus continues to evolve and the World Health Organization considered Omicron EG.5 to be a "variant of interest". It is popularly called Eris and it has already been detected in 51 countries. Now it was also found in a sample from a COVID patient in Argentina.
As reported to Infobae by Dr. Mariana Viegas, coordinator of the Proyecto País - which is dedicated to genomic surveillance with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina- , the EG.5 sublineage has already been in the country since, at least, last month. It has also been detected in Colombia, Ecuador and the United States. In the latter it became the most prevalent among the detected cases. "In the group of 12 samples that we sequenced last week, which come from confirmed cases in July, one corresponded to EG.5 and was from a patient from the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) ," Viegas said. “It is not statistically significant due to the low number of sequenced samples. But today few tests are done and it is more difficult to get samples to carry out the sequencing”, she added.
In the GISAID platform, 7354 Omicron EG.5 sequences from 51 countries have already been deposited. Most of them come from China. The other countries with at least 100 sequences are: the United States of America, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain. Globally, there was a steady increase in the proportion of EG.5 in COVID cases globally. During the week of July 17 to 23, the global prevalence of EG.5 was 17.4%. "This is a notable increase compared to the data reported four weeks earlier, when the global prevalence of EG.5 was 7.6%," according to the WHO.
Based on the available information, the public health risk posed by EG.5 is assessed globally as “low” by health agency experts, consistent with the risk associated with XBB.1.16 and the other sublineages currently in circulation. They also argued that “although EG.5 has shown increased prevalence, growth advantage, and immune escape properties, no change in disease severity has been reported to date. Although hospitalizations for EG.5 have increased in countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, no association has been established between these hospitalizations and EG.5″. But the WHO experts warned: "EG.5 may cause an increase in the incidence of cases and become dominant in some countries or even globally." This was made known for the first time on February 17.
Eris: what is known about the EG.5 subvariant
The symptoms of subvariant EG.5 are: sore throat, runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, cough, headache, and hoarse voice. It can also generate muscle pain and an altered sense of smell. Shortness of breath and fever are less common.
“The EG.5 subvariant has an extra mutation at the ACE2 binding site and better evades antibodies by vaccine or natural infection. Both things combine to give it greater transmissibility," said virologist Santiago Mirazo, associate professor of the Department of Bacteriology and Virology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Republic in Uruguay, when consulted by Infobae . "But there is no evidence that that sublineage causes greater severity or even clearly different symptoms than other Ómicron ones."
In Argentina, the year 2023 began with more than 37,000 cases of COVID in the first week. Then they fell to less than 500 per week in July, according to Jorge Aliaga, a PhD in physics from the National University of Hurlingham, in the province of Buenos Aires, who conducts a weekly analysis of official data. Faced with the appearance of the EG.5 sublineage, Meera Chand, deputy director of the UKHSA health agency in the United Kingdom, commented to The Guardian newspaper that: “Vaccination remains our best defense against future waves of COVID-19, so it continues being as important as ever that people come to get all the doses to which they are entitled as soon as possible.”
Regarding vaccination in Argentina, the Federal Health Council (COFESA) and the National Ministry of Health recommend that people who are in high-risk groups for developing severe forms of the disease, such as people aged 50 or more, with immunocompromised and pregnant, receive a booster dose of the COVID vaccine.
To receive the vaccine, it must have been at least 6 months since their last dose, regardless of how many boosters they have previously received, and they must adhere to a minimum interval of at least 4 months since their last dose. Also included in the medium risk group are those under 50 years of age with comorbidities (chronic diseases and/or obesity) and people with a higher risk of exposure (health personnel) and strategic function. This group should receive a booster dose 6 months after the last dose applied, followed by an annual booster.
People considered to be at low risk of complications, such as those under 50 years of age without comorbidities, should also receive the booster vaccination against COVID-19, with an annual dose recommended.
La subvariante EG.5 ya está en Argentina, ¿podrían aumentar los casos de COVID?
La presencia en el territorio nacional del sublinaje de Ómicron, conocido popularmente como Eris, fue informada a Infobae por la doctora Mariana Viegas, coordinadora del Proyecto País. Cuáles son los síntomas y sus riesgos, según expertos en virología
www.infobae.com
The virus continues to evolve and the World Health Organization considered Omicron EG.5 to be a "variant of interest". It is popularly called Eris and it has already been detected in 51 countries. Now it was also found in a sample from a COVID patient in Argentina.
As reported to Infobae by Dr. Mariana Viegas, coordinator of the Proyecto País - which is dedicated to genomic surveillance with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina- , the EG.5 sublineage has already been in the country since, at least, last month. It has also been detected in Colombia, Ecuador and the United States. In the latter it became the most prevalent among the detected cases. "In the group of 12 samples that we sequenced last week, which come from confirmed cases in July, one corresponded to EG.5 and was from a patient from the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) ," Viegas said. “It is not statistically significant due to the low number of sequenced samples. But today few tests are done and it is more difficult to get samples to carry out the sequencing”, she added.
In the GISAID platform, 7354 Omicron EG.5 sequences from 51 countries have already been deposited. Most of them come from China. The other countries with at least 100 sequences are: the United States of America, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain. Globally, there was a steady increase in the proportion of EG.5 in COVID cases globally. During the week of July 17 to 23, the global prevalence of EG.5 was 17.4%. "This is a notable increase compared to the data reported four weeks earlier, when the global prevalence of EG.5 was 7.6%," according to the WHO.
Based on the available information, the public health risk posed by EG.5 is assessed globally as “low” by health agency experts, consistent with the risk associated with XBB.1.16 and the other sublineages currently in circulation. They also argued that “although EG.5 has shown increased prevalence, growth advantage, and immune escape properties, no change in disease severity has been reported to date. Although hospitalizations for EG.5 have increased in countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea, no association has been established between these hospitalizations and EG.5″. But the WHO experts warned: "EG.5 may cause an increase in the incidence of cases and become dominant in some countries or even globally." This was made known for the first time on February 17.
Eris: what is known about the EG.5 subvariant
The symptoms of subvariant EG.5 are: sore throat, runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, cough, headache, and hoarse voice. It can also generate muscle pain and an altered sense of smell. Shortness of breath and fever are less common.
“The EG.5 subvariant has an extra mutation at the ACE2 binding site and better evades antibodies by vaccine or natural infection. Both things combine to give it greater transmissibility," said virologist Santiago Mirazo, associate professor of the Department of Bacteriology and Virology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Republic in Uruguay, when consulted by Infobae . "But there is no evidence that that sublineage causes greater severity or even clearly different symptoms than other Ómicron ones."
In Argentina, the year 2023 began with more than 37,000 cases of COVID in the first week. Then they fell to less than 500 per week in July, according to Jorge Aliaga, a PhD in physics from the National University of Hurlingham, in the province of Buenos Aires, who conducts a weekly analysis of official data. Faced with the appearance of the EG.5 sublineage, Meera Chand, deputy director of the UKHSA health agency in the United Kingdom, commented to The Guardian newspaper that: “Vaccination remains our best defense against future waves of COVID-19, so it continues being as important as ever that people come to get all the doses to which they are entitled as soon as possible.”
Regarding vaccination in Argentina, the Federal Health Council (COFESA) and the National Ministry of Health recommend that people who are in high-risk groups for developing severe forms of the disease, such as people aged 50 or more, with immunocompromised and pregnant, receive a booster dose of the COVID vaccine.
To receive the vaccine, it must have been at least 6 months since their last dose, regardless of how many boosters they have previously received, and they must adhere to a minimum interval of at least 4 months since their last dose. Also included in the medium risk group are those under 50 years of age with comorbidities (chronic diseases and/or obesity) and people with a higher risk of exposure (health personnel) and strategic function. This group should receive a booster dose 6 months after the last dose applied, followed by an annual booster.
People considered to be at low risk of complications, such as those under 50 years of age without comorbidities, should also receive the booster vaccination against COVID-19, with an annual dose recommended.
