{"id":56503,"date":"2022-12-18T19:29:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=56503"},"modified":"2022-12-18T19:29:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:29:31","slug":"the-fast-spreading-new-covid-19-subvariant-xbb-is-part-of-a-new-class-of-omicron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/12\/the-fast-spreading-new-covid-19-subvariant-xbb-is-part-of-a-new-class-of-omicron\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fast-Spreading New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a \u2018New Class\u2019 of Omicron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the past several months, Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5<\/a> have dominated COVID-19<\/a> cases in the U.S. But now, there\u2019s a class of new COVID subvariants on the rise and one in particular is getting plenty of attention. It\u2019s called XBB\u2014or Gryphon\u2014and there\u2019s a chance it could overtake everything else out there.<\/p>\n\n\n

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XBB is getting a lot of buzz because it spreads fast\u2014and seems to be able to evade immunity that people have built up from having a previous COVID-19 infection or getting the vaccine, says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Still, Dr. Schaffner says, \u201cit\u2019s early days and we have a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what we know about XBB so far, and why doctors are keeping a close eye on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the XBB COVID variant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XBB is one of the \u201cnew class\u201d of Omicron variants that are spreading fast right now, says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. That includes BQ.1.1, BQ.1, BQ.1.3, BA.2.3.20, and XBB, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cXBB is a hybrid version of two strains of the BA.2 form of Omicron,\u201d explains Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It\u2019s currently \u201cspreading efficiently in Singapore,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The variant was first detected in August 2022 in India, and has been detected in more than 17 countries since then, including Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan and the U.S., per Singapore\u2019s Ministry of Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XBB is thought to have the best ability to evade antibody protections of these newly emerged COVID variants, according to a pre-print study<\/a> from researchers in China. That study said that the new strains of Omicron, and XBB in particular, \u201care the most antibody-evasive strain tested, far exceeding BA.5 and approaching SARS-CoV-1 level.\u201d (SARS-CoV-1, in case you\u2019re not familiar with it, is the strain of coronavirus that causes SARS<\/a>, a respiratory virus that can cause severe illness.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meaning, the vaccine and having previously had COVID-19 are not thought to offer the same level of protection against XBB as they have with previous strains of COVID-19. Antibody drugs like Evusheld and bebtelovimab may also not be very effective against XBB, the pre-print study<\/a> says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese variants are evolving to evade protection,\u201d Dr. Russo says. The bivalent booster is \u201clikely going to be protective against severe disease\u201d with XBB, but will be \u201cimperfect against preventing infection,” Dr. Russo says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t panic, though. \u201cWhen it comes to evasion of vaccine protection, it\u2019s important to recognize that vaccine protection is not all or none,\u201d Dr. Adalja says. \u201cEven with immune-evasive variants, vaccine protection against what matters most\u2014severe disease\u2014remains intact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XBB variant symptoms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, symptoms of XBB seem to be similar to what they\u2019ve been with COVID-19 in general. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC), those can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Fever or chills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Cough<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Fatigue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Muscle or body aches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Headache<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 New loss of taste or smell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Sore throat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Congestion or runny nose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Nausea or vomiting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Diarrhea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How contagious is the XBB subvariant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other strains of Omicron, XBB is thought to be very contagious. Singapore\u2019s Ministry of Health<\/a> notes that the variant now makes up 54% of COVID-19 cases in the country, up from 22% the week before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore\u2019s Ministry of health says that XBB is \u201cat least as transmissible as currently circulating variants\u201d but adds that \u201cthere is no evidence that XBB causes more severe illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will the XBB subvariant peak?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of unknowns about XBB right now. While it\u2019s been detected in the U.S., BA.5 and BA.4.6 continue to be the dominant variants in this country, per CDC data<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other variants are also started to spread at the same time, Dr. Adalja says, and it\u2019s unclear which will displace BA.4.6 and BA.5 in the U.S., if they will at all. \u201cIt\u2019s likely to spread to some degree in the U.S. but unclear if it\u2014or some other related variant such as BQ.1.1\u2014will become dominant,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Schaffner says there is “some concern” about XBB and fellow variants on the rise. \u201cWatching what happens over the next several weeks is important,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is accurate as of press time. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly evolves and the scientific community\u2019s understanding of the novel coronavirus develops, some of the information may have changed since it was last updated. While we aim to keep all of our stories up to date, please visit online resources provided by the CDC<\/a>, WHO<\/a>, and your local public health department<\/a> to stay informed on the latest news. Always talk to your doctor for professional medical advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past several months, Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have dominated COVID-19 cases in the U.S. But now, there\u2019s a class of new COVID subvariants on the rise and one in particular is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2007],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56506,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56503\/revisions\/56506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}