Kraken and Orthrus, symptoms and characteristics of the two new sub-variants of Sars-CoV-2 that have arrived in Italy

It’s called XBB 1.5, better known as Krakenfrom the name of the legendary sea monster of literature and cinema, and landed in Italy together with Orthrus. They are two of the many variants of Sars-CoV-2 that are spreading the most in the world and which in our country were first identified in Umbria and then – the first – also in Veneto and Lombardy. But, as usual, due to the limited sequencing capacity it is probable that they are already present in positive people a bit throughout the territory. Kraken is indeed predominant in the United Stateswhere it overwhelmed the others at remarkable speed – also gaining ten points a week and reaching half the cases – and Orthrus concerns 25% of those in Great Britain.

According to the data of Centers for disease control and prevention, the sub-variant XBB.1.5 (itself daughter of Omicron, follows XBB and XBB.1) was already present in the United States in October. But since December its growth has been exponential also thanks to the S486P mutation into the usual Spike protein that it uses to latch onto human cell receptors. The X in the name indicates that this and the previous sub-variants arose through a recombination of two or more sub-lineages, in this case BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75.2. In Italy, according to the latest flash survey of the Higher Institute of Health on January 10, Kraken and Orthrus were reported to be growing “but at the moment – explained the ISS – there is no evidence correlated to a greater severity of the infection». Same dynamic for CH.1.1Orthrus is replacing BQ.1.1 (Cerberus) in the UK and accounts for over a quarter of infections.

What are the symptoms

In terms of symptomsfor Kraken – currently cataloged by the European ECDC as a variant of interest also due to its extreme contagiousness – there doesn’t seem to be any substantial news compared to the other sub-variants that we have known in recent months: a runny nose, sore throatIn certain cases temperature, cough and therefore the usual flu-like symptoms. For Orthrus (inserted by the ECDC among the variants under control) some British specialized magazines add – without too much use, given that these too are among the effects we know – runny nose, heachache And fatigue. Its characteristics “are being investigated” underlines the document from the ISS and the Ministry of Health. As of January 10, the predominant variant in Italy remained, with 86.3% of cases, Omicron 5 followed by dozens of sublineages in very low percentages.

If the clinical data would not seem too different from Omicron 5, therefore those to which we are accustomed, however according to some experts we will have to expect a outbreak of infections within a couple of weeks, determined precisely by the growth of the new variants. The advice is of course take the fourth dose – or conclude the primary cycle of three – with a bivalent vaccine that also protects against the latest variants. At the moment only 10% of the population – just over 30% of the vaccinated audience – has received the second booster dose.

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