Photo: REUTERS / copyright
Ómicron, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, was first identified in South Africa in the past 24 of November.
It has already been reported in several countries and preliminary evidence suggests that it may have an increased risk of reinfection, according to the WHO.
Ómicron is one of the five variants that the international organization considers “of concern” . This is how it names those that are associated with one or more of the following changes as long as they affect significantly to public health globally:
- There is an increase in transmissibility.
- There is an increase in virulence – the ability of the virus to cause harm to its host— or there is a change in the clinical presentation of the disease.
- There is a decrease in the effectiveness of social and public health measures or of available diagnostics, vaccines and treatments.
This category includes the alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants, identified for the first time, respectively, in the United Kingdom, India, Brazil and South Africa.
In addition to those “of concern”, there are those considered “Of interest” (VOI). These are those whose genome shows mutations compared to the reference virus and have been identified as a cause of community transmission or detected in several countries.
One of them is the variant l
Another is the variant m u , identified in Colombia last January and present in 40 countries.
Of all those identified by WHO, there are 14 variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have ceased to be monitored because they no longer circulate at levels considered significant for global public health.
The reasons may be because they have been circulating for a long time without causing a great impact on the epidemiological situation of the countries or because scientific evidence has shown that these variants are not associated with worrying properties .
Among them are the mutations previously known as and psilon (identified in the United States), z eta (identified in Brazil) and t heta (i identified in the Philippines). All three were already classified as variants of interest.
The question of the name
Since the beginning of June, the organism uses the letters of the Greek alphabet to refer to the different variants.
It is a measure, he points out, to simplify the discussion and help eliminate stigma that can cause a variant to be associated with the name of a country.
“No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants,” Maria Van tweeted at the end of May Kerkhove, Covid Technical Lead – 19 of the WHO.
However, when naming the new mutation , the technicians encountered some obstacles. The correct letter after mu, in the order of the Greek alphabet, would be nu, whose pronunciation is similar to the word new (new in English).
The next one would be xi, but this is a common surname, the WHO said in a statement to Reuters.
Because, WHO decided to skip those two letters and name the new variant Omicron.
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