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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
January 04, 2023
In China, a new cousin of Omicron is making headlines. This is the BF.7 sub-variant, causing an outbreak in the country. Should we be worried about this new variant? The point with Dr Gérald Kierzek, medical director of Doctissimo.
Since the end of the zero Covid policy on December 7, 2022, the number of cases of coronavirus contamination has exploded in China. The fault in particular of the Chinese vaccines – whose protection is insufficient – but also because of the BF.7 variant, a descendant of BA.5 extremely contagious.
BF.7 is more contagious but less “virulent”
This cousin ofOmicronpresent in France since last spring, would seem, in the first place, more contagious.
Indeed, according to initial data, a person infected with BF.7 could contaminate between 10 and 18 individuals. This would explain the epidemic outbreak in China, especially in Beijing, where hospitals, morgues and crematoriums in Beijing are overwhelmed.
“BF.7 would have an R0 [taux de reproduction, NDLR] from 10 to 18.6. This means that an infected person will transmit the virus, on average, to between 10 and 18.6 other people, compared to 5.08 on average for Omicron“, said Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist and director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, on Twitter.
Dr. Kierzek nevertheless wants to be reassuring on this subject:
“The BF.7 is a subvariant of Omicron that is not more severe and does not cause more symptoms. The risk is concentrated rather more around the other variants: in China for example, it is a real breeding ground. But in France, there is nothing to worry about: BF.7 is certainly more contagious, but much less virulent.”
Symptoms of BF.7
In terms of symptoms, those of BF.7 are similar to the signs caused by the previous variants: fever, cough, sore throat… and more rarely, gastrointestinal symptoms: diarrhea and vomiting.
The subvariant would nevertheless seem to escape acquired immunity, meaning that a vaccinated or recently infected person can fall ill again from BF.7.
Should we be worried about it? It’s still a big no, according to the medical director of Doctissimo.
France and more broadly Europe also enjoy strong immunity.
France has reduced its sequencing capacities for the virus
In October, BF.7 represented 10% of the positive tests sequenced against less than 1% today.
Sequencing, which is no longer carried out, even though the end of the “zero Covid” policy in China raises fears of the appearance of new variants.
Since December 31, France has in fact greatly reduced its sequencing capacities for the virus: only two platforms out of eight will now carry out this monitoring of variants.