July 15, 2022, 7:40 PM
July 15, 2022, 7:40 PM
the lineages BA4 and BA5 of the omicron variant of Covid-19 are circulating in 22 countries, according to the weekly report of the World Health Organization (WHO). These lineages or subvariants are present in Europe and Asia, and cases have been reported in Canada, according to the WHO.
The Bolivian Society of Infectious Diseases, through its president, Juan Saavedra, indicated that these lineages have not yet reached the country, where B2 currently predominates and circulate BA1, BA3 and B2.12. There is no notification of the presence of these new lineages. Nevertheless, they will probably arrive in four to eight weeks and that, possibly, between November and December they are the cause of the sixth wave.
“BA4 and BA5 are much less aggressives than the previous lineages and variants that have already circulated,” said Jairo Méndez, advisor on Emerging Diseases of the Pan American Health Organization, at the press conference offered by that entity this week. He also pointed out that he has a high transmission capacity and that its behavior is similar to the omicron.
Carissa Etienne, Director of PAHO, during the same press conference, stated: “Surely this will be the prevailing strain in the coming weeks”for which he recommended vaccination against the coronavirus, which, he said, proved to be efficient against the omicron lineages to avoid death and serious cases.
The infectologist Saavedra expressed that each new variant or lineage that appears displaces the previous one, and made the list of what happened in January 2022 in the country, when the fourth wave was produced by the delta variant and the BA1 lineage of omicron. As he pointed out, in July, that is, six months later, the predominant lineage is BA2. Saavedra calculates that between next November and December BA5 is the lineage that displacand the others.
Specialists recommend maintaining biosecurity measures (use of a mask, physical distancing and hand disinfection) and reinforce vaccination. Saavedra advises completing the vaccination schedule and applying the boosters every five months.
Saavedra foresees that at the end of the fifth wave, in about three months, more than 75% of Bolivians will be immunized against Covid-19, so it will be more difficult for them to be infected by a new virus.
“More than 75% of the population is going to be infected; your ability to defend yourself will be in better conditions when it will probably get to circulate BA4 and BA5. The largest amount (of the population) is going to be protected; in such a way that the virus will have difficulty producing infected. It will pass from person to person, but they will not develop the disease and, therefore, will not infect. That is the big advantage when there is herd immunity,” he explained.
The doctor stated that this herd immunity can be advanced with vaccination. He referred to people who have not completed their regimen or have not received any dose that, since they are not protected, are more susceptible to being infected, soIt is probably this group that gave rise to the sixth wave.
