\nA new COVID-19 variant may be more likely to cause breakthrough infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nThe CDC released a risk assessment Wednesday, breaking down information regarding the new variant.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cBA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines,\u201d the assessment read. Meaning, it may be more likely to cause breakthrough infections than previous strains of the virus.\n<\/p>\n \nThe CDC also broke down where the variant has been spotted, how severe an illness it may cause, and whether current treatments are effective against it.\n<\/p>\n \nHere's what experts currently know about BA.2.86.\n<\/p>\n Getty Images \/ AzmanL<\/p>\n <\/span> <\/span> <\/p>\n \nNicknamed \u201cPirola,\u201d BA.2.86 was first identified on July 24, 2023. The World Health Organization recently added the new variant to its list of \u201ccurrently circulating variants under monitoring,\u201d noting that the strain has a \u201clarge number of mutations identified.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nSo far, nine cases of BA.2.86 have been detected\u2014three in Denmark, two in South Africa, two in the U.S., one in the U.K., and one in Israel.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nOne of the cases in the U.S. was a person in Michigan, with the Michigan Health Department noting in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the patient who contracted the strain is an older adult with \u201cmild symptoms\u201d who hasn\u2019t been hospitalized.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nBA.2.86 is a subvariant of Omicron, which has been the dominant strain in the U.S. since late 2021, but \u201cit has many, many more mutations than the mutations of each of the variants before,\u201d Timothy Murphy, MD, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, told Health<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n \nSpecifically, BA.2.86 has more than 35 amino acid changes to its spike protein than the recently circulating XBB.1.5, which the fall COVID-19 booster was based on, Murphy said.\n<\/p>\n \nThe CDC pointed out that this change is \u201croughly of the same magnitude\u201d as the switch between the Delta strain of COVID-19 and the initial Omicron variant, BA.1.\n<\/p>\n \nIt's the spike protein mutations that make this variant likely to cause breakthrough infections.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe virus uses the spike protein to bind the disease to cells,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the vaccines are directed against.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nWith so many mutations in the spike protein, there is a greater chance that the vaccine and having previously been infected with COVID-19 won\u2019t offer as much protection against BA.2.86 as prior strains of the virus, William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told Health<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cInitially, officials thought that BA.2.86 was not all that much different but, now that they\u2019ve noted there are many mutations, they\u2019ve at least raised the question about whether there may be some immune evasion on the part of this strain,\u201d Schaffner said.\n<\/p>\n \nThe CDC said it\u2019s \u201ctoo soon to know the real-world impacts on immunity\u201d of BA.2.86. However, the agency noted that many people have immunity, either from previous infection, the vaccine, or both.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt is likely that these antibodies will continue to provide some protection against severe disease from this variant,\u201d the CDC said.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n Pregnancy and COVID-19 Booster Shots: What You Should Know<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nWhile testing for COVID-19 is highly encouraged, new variants can be tricky to accurately test for.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe have no lab data or experimental data whatsoever to say how this will impact immunity,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIt simply hasn\u2019t been studied at this point, but likely will be soon.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nSamples of the new strain aren\u2019t broadly available for reliable lab testing at this point, but are expected to happen eventually.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nMeanwhile, existing treatments for older COVID-19 strains can most likely provide relief for patients who are infected with BA.2.86.\n<\/p>\n \nAccording to the CDC, the mutation profile of BA.2.86 suggests that treatments like Paxlovid, Veklury, and Lagevrio will be effective against the variant.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe medications don\u2019t target the spike protein\u2014they go after different proteins in the virus and those do not appear to be any different,\u201d Murphy said.\n<\/p>\n \nSchaffner agreed. \u201cThe treatments for sure ought to work, but we’ll see whether over-the-counter tests continue to be able to detect this new variant as we go forward,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n \nOverall, it's hard to say how different BA.2.86 is from other variants. The CDC stressed that there have just been nine cases, making it hard to know how infectious this variant is and how severe of an illness it may cause.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThere\u2019s really zero information here,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cWith nine cases, it\u2019s just not enough to know anything.\u201d\n<\/p>\n When To Get Boosted After Having a COVID-19 Breakthrough Infection<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new COVID-19 variant, BA.2.86 (nicknamed Pirola) may cause breakthrough infections, according to a new CDC risk assessment. There have been nine confirmed cases of BA.2.86 worldwide\u2014two of those cases have been in the United States. Experts note that treatment options for older COVID variants may be able to treat this new strain as well; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1283,410],"tags":[1284,116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.health.com\/thmb\/L-iVvoFakvZPJLb6tZvw4TZ5r6Q=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()\/GettyImages-1345296778-dea95d3fe3da42fb87d3867a8fc3b595.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n What Is BA.2.86? <\/span> <\/h2>\n
The Impact of BA.2.86 on Infection Rates <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Testing and Treating BA.2.86 <\/span> <\/h2>\n