2023-04-29 08:24:00
The Acturus variant, or XBB.1.16, is currently under surveillance. New symptoms, such as the appearance of a form of conjunctivitis in children are mentioned, should we be worried?
The XBB.1.16 is uA new variant of Omicron which has been spreading in India since January, and it has been detected in France and Europe. “Arcturus”, his nickname, was detected in a dozen patients in France, note TF1, which cites cases in Normandy, in the Center-Val-de-Loire, in the Grand-Est, in Île-de-France and in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, according to Gisaid (Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data), which tracks Covid variants.
Conjunctivitis?
While for the time being, few cases are still detected, the Swiss epidemiologist Antoine Flahault believes that the presence of this variant might be largely “underestimated”.
Several media mention characteristic symptoms of this variant, which seems to affect mainly children, in whom a symptom resembling a kind of conjunctivitis without pus but with a pink color of the eye, accompanied by itching might be observed.
XBB.1.16 #Arcturus
For the last 2 days, have started getting pediatric Covid cases once once more following a gap of 6 mo! An infantile phenotype seems emerging—treated infants w/ high fever, cold & cough, & non-purulent, itchy conjunctivitis w/ sticky eyes, not seen in earlier waves pic.twitter.com/UTVgrCCLWU
— Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) April 6, 2023
These symptoms, it is an Indian pediatrician, Vipin M. Vashishtha, who evokes them on his Twitter account. These observations are found in a preprint (a prepublication which is awaiting validation) that he co-authored, but with a “fairly limited methodology”, tempers Nicolas Berrod, journalist at Le Parisien, who found the document in question.
“Widely insufficient”
Indeed, out of the sample observed, 25 children tested positive for Covid and showing symptoms, “22 of them are under the age of 5, 9 of whom presented non-purulent conjunctivitis, with sticky eyes and itchy”. Nicolas Berrod adds that according to the study, “there was no sequencing so there is no evidence that it is XBB.1.16”
22 of them are under 5 years old, 9 of whom presented with non-purulent conjunctivitis, with sticky and itchy eyes.
“This manifestation was not seen in infants in previous waves, especially in this region.”
5/11 pic.twitter.com/GSdSwzzZC3
— Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) April 28, 2023
Asked by our colleagues, the Montpellier epidemiologist Mircéa Sofonéa, recalls that many respiratory viruses can cause kinds of conjunctivitis in children. Thus, the study in question seems “largely insufficient to exclude adenovirus in general. And it is completely possible to have a slightly stronger circulation of this or that virus in a region, and that then the infected children are also positive for SARS-CoV-2“, he believes.
The WHO is monitoring this variant
It will therefore be necessary to be patient and wait for new studies, carried out more widely, as well as other sequencing, to affirm or invalidate the presence of this new symptom in young children.
For its part, the WHO, which nevertheless monitors this variant, is rather reassuring: “This variant has been in circulation for a few months. no change in severity seen in individuals or in populations”, indicated the international health agency at the beginning of April.
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