There new variant KP.2 has already been detected in Italy, it is running in the USA and is the cause of 1 in 4 cases of Covid. “Americans are getting worried about this latest variant that comes from Jn.1. KP.2 has three interesting mutations but in the USA they are worrying a little too much“, epidemiologist Massimo Ciccozzi tells Adnkronos Saluteamong the authors of an all-Italian study – Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome (Francesco Branda, Chiara Romano) and University of Sassari (Fabio Scarpa and Alessandra Ciccozzi) – dedicated to the KP.2 variant and sent to the magazine ‘The Journal of Infectious Diseases’.
What we know about the KP.2 variant
“It is true that one of these mutations is at site 455, a ‘flip mutation’, changes the amino acid and destabilizes the structure of the protein. But it does not mean that it is more immunoevasive – it does not evade anti-Covid vaccines – than the other variants or more dangerous. It resembles the Delta variant, but lacks a mutation on the next site and is not as aggressive as Delta has been. Our study shows that there is no risk of greater virulence and evasion of the immune systemwill tend to replace previous variants”, underlines the expert.
“As usual, there is a tendency to confuse evolutionary fitness with contagious fitness – continues Ciccozzi – For example, Ebola did not evolve because, despite its great contagiousness and virulence, it killed almost all its hosts. And this is not the case for Sars-Cov-2: in short, one thing is evolutionary fitness and the ability to adapt, the fitness of contagiousness and gravity is one thing. If the ability to adapt increases, the severity of the disease decreases. However, it is good to monitor the virus, without creating unnecessary alarm.”
