The new Centaur variant, with the scientific name BA.2.75, has been detected in almost a dozen countries in Europe, in addition to the United States. The new mutation stems from Omicron and appears to be more contagious than previous subvariants.
The BA.2.75a new variant detached from Omicronpopularly known as Centaurhas already been detected in almost a dozen European countries, with India leading the way in positivity.
This variant, which began registering cases last Junelike Ómicron, seems to have certain similarities with it, since could become five times more contagiousas stated The Heraldthough “doesn’t seem to be more aggressive”detailed German wave from a study of Netherlands Institute of Public Healtha country where new infections have also been detected.
The differences of the Centaur Variation
Was the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who reported the presence of the BA.2.75 variant in India, while detailing that the current BA.4 and BA.5 variants were still responsible for the majority of cases in Europe and America. On the occasion he stated that they were “following this sublineage”.
One of the main similarities with Omicron is his rapidly expanding powerhowever, has recorded be up to five times more contagious than its predecessors.
This should, according to Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientistat more than 15 mutations of the new Centaur variant.
According to several analyzes carried out by the scientific community, but not yet peer reviewed, this variant would have 16 mutations in its genomeof which four in the N-terminal domain, four in the receptor binding domain and others eight in spike protein.
Of these mutations, G446S y R493Q are the ones that could generate more problems according to the experts, since can influence their contagiousnesswhich could help her to violate the immunity conferred by antibodies generated by the body against the virus.
However, according to World Health OrganizationI still know “transmissibility, severity and potential for immune evasion are unknown” of the Centaur variant.
So far the health organization has not named it as a variant of preoccupation and they have not been disclosed if it causes different or more severe symptoms.
In turn, they asserted that more analysis is needed to know if it represents a danger for the immunity conferred by vaccines.