The official acronym is Xbf but his «nickname» is «Bythos». For the new version a mythological name was chosen, that of Bythos which recalls the personification of monster of the sea abyss, with human torso, horse’s front legs and fish’s tail. A real monster, which is scary in short, even if circulation is low at least for the moment.
It is the latest subvariant of Sars-Cov-2 that the World Health Organization has included in the list of Omicron 5 sub-lineages closely monitored for telltale characteristics of increased transmissibility and escape immune.
A new entry that brings the number of special supervised units to 7. The first sequences of Xbf were reported on 27 July 2022, according to the latest bulletin on the progress of Covid-19 that theOms spreads weekly.
Recombinant of BA.5.2.3 and CJ.1, compared to Omicron BA.5 the XBF subvariant has 11 additional mutations in Spike protein.
As of February 12, it has been identified in 46 countries, of which 7: AustraliaNew Zealand, Austria, Denmark, United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States have reported over 100 sequences to date.
“We have the tools to save lives and end #COVID19 as a global health emergency this year. We must continue to use them all, and use them well”-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 15, 2023
“At the moment – specifies the WHO – there has been no epidemiological evidence that Xbf causes an increase in Covid cases, hospitalizations or deaths”.
Threat to Italy?
The new Covid threat for Italy is called Bythos, a new variant of Omicron that keeps everyone in suspense. The WHO has recognized it in all respects as a new mutation of the virus after the emergence of more and more cases around the world. From Australia to Sweden, the new version of the virus has also arrived in Italy and some cases have already been recorded. But what is it about and what is there to fear about this new “model”?
While in Italy the controversy over the management of the first months of the pandemic rages, with the investigation open into what happened in Alzano and Nembro which involves the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte and the former minister Roberto Speranza, theWorld Health Organization reported the new XBF variant, precisely Bythos. She is the umpteenth sister of Omicron, one of the most worrying of the variants that have taken hold in these three years.
In the last weekly bulletin, alongside the sub-variants BF.7, BQ.1 (Cerberus), BA.2.75 (Centaurus), CH.1.1 (Orthrus), XBB (Gryphon), XBB.1.5 (Kraken, here you we talked about its seriousness), in fact XBF also appeared, with the sub-lineages of Omicron 5 kept under close monitoring, thus rising to 7.
According to the latest data, in fact, the XBF version has been found in 46 countries and represents just over 1% of the samples sequenced globally. However, it has mutations that could make it more transmissible and resistant to the immune response. However, WHO chooses caution: “At the moment there is no epidemiological evidence that the XBF sub-variant leads to an increase in cases, hospitalizations or deaths”.
In Italy at the moment Bythos represents 0.82% of the sequences detected, with 31 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the ECDC, the EU agency for disease prevention and control, has downgraded three strains of the virus by deleting them from the classification of “worrying” versions: these are BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5, Omicron strains which until the end of 2022 they caused a wave of new infections in Europe (here we told you about the new study on the nature of Covid).
Bytohs, fears of the scientific community
At the moment little is known about the new Covid variant, but the alert is maximum. Preliminary studies suggest no difference in disease severity and clinical manifestations compared to the original Omicron variant, but Australian data show that many of the antiviral treatments against Covid-19 are no longer effective against multiple subvariants of Omicron circulating in the country, including Bythos.
The new variant will continue to be monitored and studied to better understand how the Sars-CoV-2 virus is evolving in order to possibly be immediately ready to intervene before it becomes an emergency again. The first sequences of XBF had been reported on July 27, 2022, but it was not yet of concern. But recently, booming cases in Australia and Sweden have sounded the alarm bells.