A new Covid variant is attracting attention: it is JN.1, a descendant of the Pirola variant, present in the United States and Europe. In France, it was mainly detected in 3 regions.
Again and again, new variants of Covid are appearing around the world and in France. The latest one was named JN.1 and it is a sublineage of BA.2.86 (nicknamed the variant Pirola), himself Omicron sub-variant. JN.1 was first detected in September 2023 in the United States and has since been detected in around ten other countries, notably in Europe (Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Iceland, France), reports the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But this variant is circulating weakly : it represents less than 0.1% of Covid infections in the United States. In France, it was detected for the first time on September 10. As of October 23, around fifty cases have been recorded in Ile-de-France And about twenty respectively in the Hauts-de-France and in the Great Eastaccording to Raj Rajnarayanan’s variant tracking.
Typical symptoms of JN.1?
No. For the moment, no data shows that JN.1 presents symptoms different from other Covid variants. Like other variants, JN.1 could cause: chills, fever, cough, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Some cases of skin symptoms (face, eyes) have also been reported in patients who have been infected with the Pirola variant.
What are the characteristics of JN.1?
“As long as we have COVID-19, we will have new variants. Almost all of them represent relatively minor changes from previous variants,” says the CDC. The JN.1 variant very closely resembles the BA.2.86 strain (Pirola) with the only difference that it presents a change in the Spike protein (the protein which is located on the surface of the virus, playing a crucial role in infection) and presents an additional mutation named L455Swhich could over time have an impact on the reaction of monoclonal antibodies, he informs.
More dangerous than the others?
Like its Pirola counterpart, the strain from which it comes, JN.1 does not seem particularly dangerous and does not seem (to date) not escape our immunity, nor spread quickly. Amesh Adalja, M.D. at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said these factors are worth monitoring, but that JN.1 is not yet a source of concern. “This is a variant very rare and an emanation of BA.2.86, and it presents the characteristic mutations of BA.2.86“. Treatments, tests and vaccines appear to remain effective on the JN.1 variant, based on analyzes conducted by the SARS-CoV-2 Interagency Group (a group of scientific experts representing numerous government agencies). Antivirals such as nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) are “independent of the variants” and will probably continue to be effective, reassures the doctor.
- Variants Happen, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 27, 2023