The sub-variant is nicknamed “Centaur” and it is already worrying health authorities. A first case of contamination with BA.2.75 from Omicron was detected in the Netherlands in a sample dated June 26, the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) announced on Wednesday July 13.
“The BA.2.75 variant of the coronavirus”, already detected among other places in India, Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, “has now also been identified in the Netherlands”, the RIVM said in a statement. The sample in question in the Netherlands comes from the province of Gelderland (north-west), and was taken on June 26, 2022, specifies the RIVM, which will look if a source search is possible and “closely follows the situation “.
United Kingdom, observed the Guardiancases of the “Centaur” subvariant have increased sharply since its appearance, and apparently more rapidly than those of the already highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant.
“It is clearly developing quite well in India, but India does not have a lot of BA.5”, specifies Tom Peacock, virologist at Imperial College London, with the British daily. “After spreading rapidly in India, we should see it spreading around the world at high speed this holiday season,” said Belgian biostatistician Geert Molenberghs. in the columns of newblad.
A variant that has “a lot of peak mutations”
While “little is known about BA.2.75,” notes the Dutch Institute, this subvariant “also appears to be able to more easily circumvent the defense built against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus through specific small changes “. Tom Peacock had tweeted in late June that BA.2.75 was “worth watching” as it contains “lots of cutting edge mutations”. This “probable second-generation variant”, with an “apparent rapid growth” has a “wide geographical distribution”. “It could mean he had the chance to develop an advantage over an already successful viral line, says at the Guardian Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds.
Asked by the British daily, Dr Tom Peacock, who was the first to identify Omicron as a potential problem in November 2021, clarified that it “is not so much about mutations per se but about their number and their combinations “It’s hard to predict the effect of so many mutations appearing together – it kind of gives the virus carte blanche where the sum of the parts would prove to be more harmful than those parts taken individually.”
For the English virologist, “Centaur” is “definitely a potential candidate for the sequel after the BA.5 subvariant”. BA.2.75 was listed on July 7 by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) as a “variant under surveillance”.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan pointed out last week that there are “still limited sequences” for analyses, but said the subvariant appears to have some ” mutations on the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein (…) a key component of the virus that binds to human receptors.” “It is still too early to know if this subvariant has additional immune evasion properties or even to be more clinically severe – we do not know”, she had insisted, while assuring that the WHO is monitoring the situation.