The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated the new EG.5 coronavirus mutation. The variant called “Eris” is now one of the “virus variants of interest”.
This makes Eris one of the three variants that are under greater observation by the WHO. These also include the XBB.1.5 variant, which is widespread in Europe and the American continent – and the XBB.1.16 variant, which is particularly common in Asia.
How dangerous is Eris, also known as EG.5?
As WHO corona expert Maria Van Kerkhove explained on Wednesday (9 August 2023) in Geneva, no more severe progression of the disease was observed with Eris, but lower vaccine protection than with other virus variants.
This may be due, among other things, to the fact that EG.5 is a descendant of XBB.1.9.2, also called “Arkturus”. This is provided with an additional spike mutation, which likely helps the virus evade the immune response through immune escape. The genetics of the virus could, theoretically, have an impact and increase its transmissibility. But there is still not enough evidence for this.
What do spike mutation, immune response and immune escape mean?Spike mutation
…refers to the spike protein responsible for entry of a virus into the host cell. Many very effective vaccines use only the spike protein as the vaccine antigen. However, a mutation in the spike protein can affect the effectiveness of a vaccination and the immune response it induces.
Immune response
… is also called an immunological reaction and describes the reaction of the immune system to potentially harmful influences – e.g. viruses.
Immune Escape
… also known in German as immune escape, is a process in which viruses use mutation or specific mechanisms to avoid detection or defense by the immune system.
WHO gives authorization for Eris
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the current EG.5 conclusions represent only a “low risk to global public health”. However, due to Eris’s growth advantage and immune escape properties, the variant is estimated to cause an increase in the number of cases and therefore become the dominant variant worldwide.
The percentage of EG.5 in all SARS-CoV-2 variants detected worldwide increased in a total of 51 countries in four weeks – from 7.6% to 17.6%. Most evidence of the variant comes from China, the US and Korea.
New infections and deaths fell
According to the WHO, since the global coronavirus health emergency was declared more than three months ago, new infections and deaths have continued to decline. However, the data situation also deteriorated at the same time.
Just a quarter of all countries provided death figures to the WHO in July – and just 11 percent reported serious case numbers.
Who should be vaccinated now?
Even though serious cases are unlikely to occur with the new variant, STIKO still recommends vaccination. Above all, to avoid possible long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infections and to protect employees in medical and nursing care.
(This post was first published on 8/11/23.)
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This topic in the program:The first | BRILLIANT | August 11, 2023 | 5:15 p.m.