A combination of two Omicron variants, it is identified by the initials XBB.1.16 and is circulating above all in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where the authorities fear a new increase in infections.
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A new variant of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, dubbed Arturo (Arturus) and identified by the initials XBB.1.16, is circulating above all in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where the authorities fear that a new increase in infections could send hospitals into suffering again. The new version of the virus, first reported in January 2023, has also been recorded in four other states of India which, overall, shows 49% of the XBB.1.16 sequences uploaded to the GISAID global database. According to experts, the surge in infections linked to this variant, which quickly replaced the previous ones in the areas where it spread, should not in any case cause waves of Covid comparable to the one that swept the Asian country in January 2022.
What do we know about the XBB.1.16 variant
The new variant XBB.1.16, so far defined as the most contagious in India, is a viral form born from the recombination of two versions of Omicron, whose rapid diffusion seems to suggest the marked ability to escape antibodies induced by infections caused by previous variants. Data from INSACOG, the Indian network of laboratories for genome sequencing of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, indicate that most of the isolates of XBB.1.16 come from Maharashtra and that most of the cases were detected a few weeks ago . However, India is not the only country where this new variant has spread. According to the World Health Organization, the first case was identified in China and, at present, at least 17 other countries, including Canada and Singapore, are under observation.
However, the new viral form does not seem to cause more serious forms of the disease: at the moment, the Indian health authorities do not report any stress on the country’s health systems, although they fear the consequences of repeated infections. In India, a large part of the population was infected with the Delta variant in 2021 and then with the Omicron variant in 2022, whereby most people were exposed to at least two variants. However, experts fear that with the growth of infections, the complications of the infection – such as heart attacks and strokes – may increase, especially in elderly people, with comorbidities and a high risk of serious illnesses.
To characterize the new lineage, according to a report by the British agency UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) are three additional mutations at the level of the Spike protein, which the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus uses to hook human cells and penetrate them. The lineage has also been identified in the United Kingdom, where the number of reports is however small.
Meanwhile, Europe is witnessing a a decrease in the number of infections, down 31% in the last month, as well as deaths, down 46%. Also in Italy, the last weeks bulletin confirms the European trend in terms of reduction of cases and deaths. In this context, the circulation of the new Arturo variant does not seem to worry the experts. “It’s a topic for social scientists or bar scientists – he stated toAdnkronos Matteo Bassetti, director of Infectious Diseases of the San Martino hospital in Genoa – . No Omicron variant has so far increased the pathogenicity or severity of Covid. He’s not doing it and neither will Arturo”.
Professor Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the State University of Milan, is less optimistic, who declared to Adnkronos: “Yet another confirmation of the remarkable instability of the virus: a characteristic in some ways perfidious, which has allowed Covid to do what it has done and which, I fear, it will still do: create new variants capable of dodging immunity and keeping viral circulation high”.
Reassuring about the potential spread of Arturo in Italy is Massimo Ciccozzi, head of the Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Campus Bio-Medico in Rome. “We are studying the Arturo variant, but what is happening in India with an increase in cases, it will not happen with us – he indicated to Adkronos Salute – . The data on infections and vaccinations arriving from that country, let us remember, are partial. A new variant may make a small spike but it won’t do as much damage in Europe as India. I don’t think it can worry us”.
Massimo Andreoni, scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, also expressed his opinion on the Arturo variant. “The new Covid variants, unlike the recent past, they hardly become dominant in an absolute sense. And this is a new fact. Throughout the pandemic as Alpha, Beta, Delta arrived, they then took the stage 100%. The variants that have been emerging for a year now reach 30, 40 and 60%”.
