First case of new BQ.1 variant found in Thailand
published : 19 Oct 2022 at 09:02
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Post Reporters
The first case of Omicron's highly contagious variant BQ.1 has been detected in Thailand, according to the Centre for Medical Genomics at Ramathibodi Hospital.
The centre posted on Facebook that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an alert for the outbreak of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, the two descendants of Omicron's BA.5 sub-variant.
BQ.1 now makes up one in 10 cases in the US.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are "pretty troublesome" and they have a concerning "doubling time", referring to how quickly they spread.
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are reported to be resistant to current antibody medications used to treat Covid-19 patients.
BQ.1 spreads 15% faster than BA.5.2 and 14% faster than BA.2 on a daily basis.
However, there is no proof that BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 will cause more severe infections and more fatalities than previous sub-variants, the centre said.
Previously, two cases of XBB sub-lineage were detected last month in two people: a foreign woman, 60, who arrived from Hong Kong and a Thai woman, 49, who returned from Singapore.
Each experienced mild symptoms and have already recovered.
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Vocabulary
- alert: a warning to people to be prepared to deal with something dangerous - การเตือนให้ระวัง
- antibody (noun): a substance that the body produces in the blood to fight disease, or as a reaction when certain substances are put into the body - สารภูมิต้านทาน
- contagious: of a disease that can be caught by touching someone with the disease or a piece of infected clothing - ซึ่งแพร่กระจายได้ง่าย
- descendant: a relative of a person who lived in the past - ทายาท, ผู้สืบสายเลือด
- lineage (noun): the series of families that somebody comes from originally - เชื้อสาย, สายสกุล, สายเลือด
- mild: not strong - เบา, ไม่หนัก, ไม่รุนแรง
- outbreak: the sudden start of a disease - การระบาดของโรค
- proof: information, documents, etc. that show that something is true - การพิสูจน์
- resistant (adj): not harmed or affected by something - ต้าน,ต่อต้าน, ต้านทาน
- severe: very serious and unpleasant - รุนแรง
- spread: to (cause to) cover, reach or have an effect on a wider or increasing area or number of people - แพร่กระจาย, แพร่กระจายไปทั่ว
- symptoms (noun): signs that someone has an illness - อาการ
- troublesome (adj): causing problems or difficulties - น่ารำคาญ, เป็นปัญหา
- variant: a thing that is a slightly different form or type of something else - สิ่งที่ผันแปร, สิ่งที่แตกต่างกัน
