2023-08-21 10:35:24
Two sub-variants of Omicron are particularly scrutinized, while the autumn vaccination campaigns against covid-19 are being prepared, with a new product.
The days are getting shorter, autumn is not so far away. With it will come concerns for viruses that spread especially in cold weather. So we are already talking about covid-19. Two sub-variants are in the sights. Should we be worried about the rise ofEG.5 et de BA.2.86?
EG.5, nicknamed Eris, is the sub-variant of Omicron that has spread this summer to Asia, North America and Europe. He did raise the indicators contamination, but in a limited way. “He is just passing through,” reassures virologist Yves Van Laethem. “We follow it like a yellow weather alert, with the usual precautions.”
“With these two variants, we will know at most two wavelets which will follow one another.”
“BA.2.86 is the most striking strain of SARS-CoV-2 that the world has known since the emergence of Omicron”, launched last week, François Balloux, director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London.
What is so special about this other Omicron derivative? Of numerous mutations of the Spike protein (the entry point of the virus into the body), which could be linked to an immune escape. Little more is known, only a few cases having already been reported, in Israel, Denmark, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The indicators have disappeared
Other variants, still in circulation, are being monitored. But traditional indicators are often no longer kept up to date by health authorities.: thus, in Belgium, systematic testing is no longer required and the collection of data (hospitalizations and deaths due to covid-19) is no longer organised.
It therefore becomes difficult to follow the possible rebounds but currently, hospitals are not under pressure.
“With these two variants, we will know at most two wavelets which will follow one another”, judges Doctor Van Laethem about EG.5 and BA.2.86.
Vaccination campaigns
Many countries have already planned new vaccination campaigns for the fall. In Belgium, the first beacons were laid down last June, during a meeting of the Cim (Interministerial Health Conference) Health and the regional authorities must organize the process. It’s about boosting the immunity of those who need it: the elderly, the most fragile such as pregnant women, overweight people…
Wallonia will launch its campaign around mid-October, for the over 65s and the immunocompromised, in particular. Those who wish can also be vaccinated.
“As long as only the kind of variants that we currently know are circulating, we do not worry.”
“We will propose to link the vaccination against covid to that against the flu”, explains the spokesperson for the Minister of Health, Christie Morreale (PS). Candidates can go at the pharmacist or at the general practitioner to receive the injection. “We have not yet decided whether we will also keep a few vaccination or local centres. Like Flanders, we could stop contacting data subjects directly by mailand favor communication via doctors and pharmacists.”
In Brussels, vaccines will be available from pharmacies, doctors, medical centers and homes and via occupational medicine. The big vaccination centers are over. And we also forget the idea of sending a nominative letter. A campaign will be launched at the end of September to raise awareness of the first line of care, which, in turn, will address the target audience.
New vaccines
It will be Pfizer vaccines updated to fit already well-known strain of Omicron (XBB1.5). These should be delivered in September. “We will have enough of it,” certifies the spokesperson for Federal Minister of Public Health Frank Vandenbroucke.
Given the configuration of the campaign, the logistical load will be significant: it will be a question of sending vaccines to hundreds of pharmacies, and no longer to a few large centres.
A “potential enemy”
“There is no reason to be apprehensive. Certainly not for public health. On the other hand, it is always necessary to protect the most sensitive individuals” sums up doctor Van Laethem.
“As long as only the kind of variants that we currently know are circulating, we do not worry. Our populations have already been well exposed to it and are therefore relatively protected. In developing countries where the average age is young, there are hardly any risks either. However, we are never safe from a very different variant, which would cause very different infections. The covid remains a potential enemy, as the flu was in particular in the 1950s, with the Asian flu.
The summary
- The covid still contaminates, even if we are far from the tragedies we have known.
- Several sub-variants of Omicron are in the viewfinder of the health authorities, including two in particular: EG.5 and BA.2.86.
- The next vaccination campaigns are being organized.
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