[ad_1]
Karachi [Pakistan]Jan 4 (ANI): As many as six cases of Covid-19 with the highly contagious Omicron subvariant category XBB were detected in a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Wednesday.
The XBB case was confirmed at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi, Dawn reported.
“We have seen six cases but there are others across the country,” Dr Faisal Mehmood, head of AKUH’s Infectious Diseases Unit, told Dawn. “These started in November.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), XBB is a highly contagious subvariant of the Omicron strain of COVID-19. Compared with other prevalent Omicron sublines, the XBB variant carries a higher risk of reinfection, Dawn reported.
Read also | Lion attack, killing lioness inside enclosure at Longleat Safari Park in England.
Citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week, The Hill said the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the relative strain of the XBB variant, accounts for 40.5% of new infections in the US.
According to the CDC, the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant has pushed the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 subvariants out of their previous positions as the most detected coronavirus mutations.
Descendants of XBB.1.5 The XBB subvariant is a recombinant of two subvariants descended from the BA.2 omicron subvariant. That means it carries genetic data from two versions of the coronavirus derived from the BA.2 subvariant, The Hill reported.
The XBB variant can spread rapidly among people with pre-existing immunity who have not been vaccinated or who have previously been infected, said Dr. Mehmood in Karachi. “The symptoms are similar to other Covid variants,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn.
Conducting a sufficient number of tests is the most important factor in curbing the spread of new variants, the expert said. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
[ad_2]
Source link