FAQ on COVID-19 subvariant XBB.1.5: What is it? Where is it prevalent? How does it differ from Omicron? Does it cause serious illness? How can I protect myself? Why is it nicknamed ‘Kraken’?
Despite intensive public health efforts to grind the COVID-19 pandemic to a halt, the recent emergence of the highly transmissible, extensively drug-resistant and profoundly immune system-evading XBB.1.5 SARS-CoV-2 subvariant is putting the global community on edge. Author SAMEER ELSAYED, Professor of Medicine, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Western University What is XBB.1.5? In the naming convention for SARS-CoV-2 lineages, the prefix “X” denotes a pedigree that arose through genetic recombination between two or more subvariants. The XBB lineage emerged following the natural co-infection of a human host with two Omicron subvariants, namely BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75. It was…