The new “Omicron” variant is “of concern” for the WHO

“Special concern”. This is how the World Health Organization (WHO) called the new variant first detected in southern Africa. “We are announcing today that B.1.1.529 is a variant of concern” and that it is “named Omicron”, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the person responsible for the management of the Covid-19 epidemic at the WHO . “The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO by South Africa on November 24, 2021 (…). This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are of concern”, said for its part the group of experts tasked by the WHO to monitor the evolution of Covid-19.

According to this Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution, the first known confirmed infection of Omicron comes from a sample taken on November 9. In recent weeks, infections in South Africa have increased sharply, coinciding with the detection of the new variant. It has since been detected also in Israel on a person returning from Malawi, Botswana, Belgium and Hong Kong.

“We understand that people are worried. The good thing is that we have surveillance systems all over the world to detect these variants very quickly”, underlined Ms. Van Kerkhove, calling on the population to reduce their exposure, following in particular barrier gestures, and to be vaccinated. Never has a new variant caused so much concern in the world since Delta.

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All viruses mutate

To facilitate public debates on variants, the WHO names the variants using the names of the letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc.), which are more accessible to a non-scientific audience and which makes it possible to avoid stigmatizing the country where this variant was initially discovered. According to the WHO expert group, preliminary data suggests that there is “an increased risk of reinfection” with Omicron, compared to other variants of concern. All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 which is responsible for Covid-19, mutate over time. Most mutations have little or no effect on the properties of the virus.

However, certain mutations can affect the properties of a virus and affect, for example, how easily it spreads, the severity of the disease it causes, or the effectiveness of vaccines and drugs. According to the WHO, a SARS-CoV-2 variant is considered to be of concern when associated with one or more changes, such as increased transmissibility or virulence, decreased effectiveness of health measures public and social or diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments available. There were so far 4 other worrying variants: Delta, which represents almost all of the cases sequenced in the world, Alpha, Beta and Gamma.

>> To read also – Pfizer: the variant B.1.1.529 “clearly differs” from the others, will it be resistant to the vaccine?