The World Health Organization has added a new sub-variant to the list of variants under observation. In the weekly bulletin published yesterday, alongside the sub-variants BF.7, BQ.1 (Cerberus), BA.2.75 (Centaurus), CH.1.1 (Orthrus), XBB (Gryphon), XBB.1.5 (Kraken), it is XBF also appeared.
The XBF sub-variant is not new: it is the result of a recombination between BA.5.2.3 and CJ.1 and the first sequences were reported at the end of July. It is currently found in 46 countries and represents just over 1% of samples sequenced globally, but it has mutations that can give it greater transmissibility and the ability to escape the immune response. “At the moment – says the WHO – there is no epidemiological evidence that the XBF sub-variant leads to an increase in cases, hospitalizations or deaths”.
On the variants front, the latest bulletin identifies other new trends: a drop in the sub-variants descending from BA.5 can be observed, which went from 70.7% at the end of 2022 to 42.7% at the end of January; those deriving from BA.2 were stable, while the recombined sub-variants grew, going from 10.6% to 32.7%, mainly thanks to the contribution of XBB. 1.5.
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