After it spread to 51 countries.. Global Health reveals details of the Iris mutant

News reports stated that a new variant of the Corona virus, called Iris, or EG.5.1, appeared and began to cause anxiety around the world, after hospitalizations increased, especially in the United States and Britain, amid bad weather and this decline in immunity. summer.

Discovered in 51 countries

The World Health Organization has classified the new Corona mutant, which is called the Iris mutant and also bears the name EG.5, as an interesting mutant after it was discovered in 51 countries around the world.

  Among the countries where this new variant has spread are Britain, the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and France.

This variant now accounts for about 17.4% of new Corona cases, or one in 6 infections, which the World Health Organization described as a significant increase.

World Health Organization

In this context, news reports indicated that this strain of the Omicron mutant was identified for the first-time last June 31, and Iris became the second most common mutant that affects people in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Independent reported that, as of July 20, the Iris variant now accounts for approximately 14.55% of cases, and is growing at a rate of 20.51% per week.

  According to the UK Health Security Agency, the increase in corona cases in Britain comes at a time when the estimated numbers jumped by nearly 200,000 last July, that is, from an expected 607 cases on July 4 to 786 on July 27.

Also, the Iris variant was the most prevalent variant in the United States as of August 5, with 17.3 percent of cases, according to the USA Today, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both the United States and the United Kingdom experienced an increase in coronavirus hospitalizations during the summer months, with the United States seeing a 12.1 percent increase in hospitalizations in the week ending July 22, according to CDC tracking.

In turn, the World Health Organization monitored the spread of the EG.5.1 mutant, which is now called the Iris mutant, adding that the mutant became on the watch lists about three weeks ago, but it appears that the new mutant does not appear to cause symptoms in humans different from previous mutants, or symptoms Sharper.

Health risks

The symptoms of the Iris variant are similar to the five most common symptoms of Omicron: runny or stuffy nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and coughing, sore throat and changes in the sense of smell.

In this context, WHO Technical Director for Covid 19, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that the Iris variant, or what is called as EG.5, has increased transmissibility, but it is not more severe than other Omicron variants, adding that the available evidence does not indicate that EG.5 has additional public health risks compared to other currently circulating Omicron descendant strains although it has shown increased proliferation, growth advantage, and immune escape characteristics.