Here Comes A New COVID-19 Variant! What Is "Pirola"? Here Is Everything Known Till Now!

On August 31, the Yale Medicine Review published an article that talked about an increase in COVID-19 infections in several countries. The culprit behind this increasing number of infections is a novel Coronavirus variant named BA.2.86. Informally, the variant is called "Pirola".

While not much is known about the ability of the transmission speed of the strain, it is still not wise to sit back and relax. As per the report, more than 30 mutations to its spike mutations have taken place. The spike protein is through which the coronavirus gets entered into the human cells.

Where has this new variant been found? What are the concerns?

The new variant of Pirola has been found in the United States, the UK, and some other nations.

Scott Roberts, the Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist stated that the issue of concern is the huge number of mutations. In the report, the specialist expressed that this was identical to the number of mutations in some of the earlier dominant variants.

The second concern that the specialist raised was that of the fact that while the cases have been found in at least six countries, the cases are actually unrelated. This indicates a degree of transmission taking place in the international community that is not clearly detected.

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How is Pirola different from other variants?

Anne Hahn a postdoctoral associate leading the Yale SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Initiative explained that Pirola is actually a subvariant that is much more interesting, as compared to the XBB.1.9 (Omicron subvariant). The Omicron variant actually spread quite quickly, but could not trap populations at a huge scale.

Ben Murrell, a Karolinska Institute researcher stated that blood samples collected last week actually performed better than they were expected in the case of neutralizing BA.2.86.

A professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, Dr Eric Ropol stated in a tweet that the findings suggest a more positive outlook for the ways new boosters might safeguard against the significantly mutated variant.

As of now, no death cases have been reported due to the novel variant, as per the World Health Organization. An aged man in Europe, as of last week, was hospitalized with the new strain. A few weeks ago, COVID-19 cases in the United States were on the rise, mainly because of the Eris variant.

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Are there any precautions to be followed?

While, as stated by the report by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), not enough evidence points out the possibility of Pirola leading to death and hospitalization, the right precautionary steps will never go wrong. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught mankind the very basics of such precautionary steps so well that no one with a prudent mind and memory would ever forget these. Yes, we are talking about vaccination, frequent hand-washing, and masking. These can go a long way in avoiding infections and protecting the world from further health troubles.

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