Monitoring the Spread of the EG.5.1 Variant ‘Iris’ – Insights from WHO and Forbes

2023-08-07 04:29:00

The World Health Organization is monitoring the spread of a new variant of the Corona virus, the EG.5.1 variant, which is now called “Iris”.

The organization added the variant to its watchlists regarding three weeks ago, according to“Forbes”.

The magazine quotes specialists as saying that the mutant carries genetic features from the mutants that preceded it.

According to WHO observations, the variant does not appear to cause symptoms in humans that are different from previous variants, or symptoms that are more severe.

But the variant shows so far more ferocious transmissibility between humans, as Britain’s Health Security Agency estimated that the new version of the virus represented 14.5 percent of new cases of infection in the country, and it is growing by 20 percent per week.

According to the US Center for Disease Control, the variant is now the most prevalent in the United States.

And “Forbes” notes that the virus is increasingly appearing in sewage tests in the United States, which calls into question the reported numbers of infections, as people are increasingly reluctant to take the test or report the infection.

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