Quiet, the new CH.1.1 subvariant also known as Orthrus, has also arrived in Italy. In the world the first reports date back to September 2022 and since then the Great Britain has become the country where CH.1.1 is most prevalent, with 25% of cases of Covid-19; followed by New Zealand (15%), United States (11%), Australia (10% and Denmark (9%). With the arrival in Italy, revealed by the rapid survey of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and the Ministry della Salute, relating to the situation of 10 January, CH.1.1 is now present in 13 European countries.
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Covid, how the Orthrus variant is transmitted
There is currently not enough data to understand how easily this new subvariant is transmitted, whether it is able to escape vaccines or what symptoms it causes. Its characteristics “are being investigated”, reads the document from the ISS and the Ministry of Health. “At the moment BQ.1.1, XBB and CH.1.1 appear to be the fastest growing variants globally and are expected to cause some level of waves of infections, together or individually, in the coming months,” he wrote at the beginning of December the infectious disease specialist Thomas Peacock, of Imperial College London. CH.1.1 is however under study and the European Center for Disease Diagnosis and Prevention (ECDC) indicates it among the subvariants under control together with four other descendants of Omicron called BA.2.3.20, BF.7, XBC and BN.1).
All subvariants
In the list of special surveillance, the variants that cause concern, the so-called Voc (Variants of Concern), occupy the first places: they are old acquaintances, such as BA.4, BA.2 (the so-called Omicron 2) and BA.5 ( Omicron 5). The last two are the progenitors of other subvariants that are carefully followed, the so-called Variants of Interest (Voi), such as BA.2.75 (Centaurus), BQ.1, XBB (Gryphon), and XBB.1.5 (Kraken), also these are all well known by now.
Symptoms
It is just the detail of a family portrait that includes hundreds of members, many of which have given rise to new lineages, as happened when Centaurus and BJ.1 (Argus) originated from Omicron 2, which combined together gave originated in Kraken. It is therefore no surprise that Omicron dominates unchallenged in Italy, where the survey by ISS and the Ministry of Health estimates a prevalence of this variant equal to 100%, with the subvariant BA.5 taking the lion’s share, with l 86.3% of cases (slightly down from the 90.6% recorded on December 13) and as many as 89 sublineages. BQ.1 (65%) and BQ.1.1 (36%) are also common. The genetic sequences considered in the survey also indicate that there are 12 cases of Covid-19 caused by the subvariant XBB.1.5 (Kraken) and the sequences of the subvariant CH.1.1 (Orthrus) are increasing, with 2.6% more than to the growth of 1% recorded on 13 December. “Preliminary estimates conducted in the United Kingdom have shown a growth advantage of CH.1.1 compared to the currently predominant sub-lineage BQ.1.18”, reads the document from the ISS and the Ministry of Health. “In the current scenario – he continues – it is necessary to continue to monitor with great attention, in line with national and international recommendations and with ministerial indications, the spread of viral variants, and in particular those with greater transmissibility and / or with mutations related to potential evasion of the immune response.