2023-11-20 20:01:52
The BA.2.86 variant, which continues to progress in France, might soon become the majority. According to the health authorities, it now represents at least 13% of recorded cases. An increase primarily driven by one of the six sub-lineages: JN .1.
A few weeks before winter and the end-of-year holidays, should we fear a new wave of Covid-19 in France? “The Covid-19 epidemic is here, it exists“, confirmed the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, last week, however wanting to be reassuring. “It has a low impact on emergencies, on SOS Médecins, and above all we have a vaccination campaign” with “today 3.2 million people are vaccinated”, he continued on the microphone of South Radio on November 14, while mentioning “an active watch”.
If the virus began to resurface in France at the heart of last summer driven by several variants, including EG.5, it is now the Omicron sub-variant, BA.2.86, detected at the end of August, which concentrates attention. Just like his descendant: JN.1.
Where is the progression of the virus?
Also nicknamed Pirola, BA.2.86 had been classified by the WHO in the category of strains under surveillance due to the very large number (greater than 30) of mutations in the Spike protein it carries. If the epidemic indicators remain generally stable at this stage, the latter continues to increase in France and represents nearly 13% of the interpretable sequences of the latest Flash survey compared to 9% for the previous one, details the latest epidemiological bulletin relayed by the Ministry of Health on November 15.
For now, the most detected variant in France remains EG.5, also nicknamed Eris, which still represents (its sublineages included) 41% of interpretable sequences (compared to 45% a week earlier).
How to explain it?
According to health authorities, the progression of Covid currently observed in France is primarily driven by one of the six sub-lineages of the Pirola variant, called JN.1, which is progressing at lightning speed. The latter now represents 10% of the cases that have been recorded, twice as much as the previous week (5%).
“At this stage, there is no indication that JN.1 has characteristics different from other BA.2.86 sublineages,” However, reassures Public Health France which is carrying out active surveillance. For good reason, France is the country which reports the most cases in Europe, notes Santé Publique France in its risk analysis of variants.
What regarding other countries?
Detected for the first time in September 2023 in the United States, JN.1 was subsequently identified in several European countries including Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain. According to epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, France and Ireland are currently “the two ‘epicenters’ of this epidemic emergence” in Europe. In Iceland where this strain was also detected, the “JN.1 detection has increased from 2 to 50% since mid-October”, illustrates Public Health France.
In this context, scientists emphasize the need to continue and develop the detection of SARS-CoV-2 mutations, especially since the immunity of vulnerable patients is likely to decline during winter.
New symptoms?
In addition to the classic symptoms of Covid, now well known to patients, namely respiratory and digestive, British doctors recently warned of a skin symptom probably specific to Pirola, itself likely to lead to eye symptoms. “Unlike most previous variants, Pirola might cause visible facial symptoms such as eye irritation and rash,” Dr Johannes Uys, a general practitioner at Broadgate General Practice in London, recently explained to the magazine The Mirror.
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Sharing the same analysis, Dr Nighat Arif, general practitioner at the National Health Service in England, for his part clarified in the program The Morning that this new skin symptom is characterized by a “skin rash”, namely red patches or pimples. Also observed in the armpits, but mainly on the face, these skin manifestations can themselves cause eye irritation. These new symptoms are not, however, synonymous with the potentially increased danger of this new variant. “There is no indication to consider this a new variant of significant concern,” thus underlines a study carried out by the Molecular Statistics and Epidemiology Unit of the Biomedical Campus of Rome.
A. LG
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