Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tegally, Houriiyah
• Moir, Monika
• Everatt, Josie
• Giovanetti, Marta
• Scheepers, Cathrine
• Wilkinson, Eduan
• Subramoney, Kathleen
• Makatini, Zinhle
• Moyo, Sikhulile
• Amoako, Daniel G
• Baxter, Cheryl
• Althaus, Christian L
• Anyaneji, Ugochukwu J
• Kekana, Dikeledi
• Viana, Raquel
• Giandhari, Jennifer
• Lessells, Richard J
• Maponga, Tongai
• Maruapula, Dorcas
• Choga, Wonderful
• Matshaba, Mogomotsi
• Mbulawa, Mpaphi B
• Msomi, Nokukhanya
• Naidoo, Yeshnee
• Pillay, Sureshnee
• Sanko, Tomasz Janusz
• San, James E
• Scott, Lesley
• Singh, Lavanya
• Magini, Nonkululeko A
• Smith-Lawrence, Pamela
• Stevens, Wendy
• Dor, Graeme
• Tshiabuila, Derek
• Wolter, Nicole
• Preiser, Wolfgang
• Treurnicht, Florette K
• Venter, Marietjie
• Chiloane, Georginah
• McIntyre, Caitlyn
• O'Toole, Aine
• Ruis, Christopher
• Peacock, Thomas P
• Roemer, Cornelius
• Kosakovsky Pond, Sergei L
• Williamson, Carolyn
• Pybus, Oliver G
• Bhiman, Jinal N
• Glass, Allison
• Martin, Darren P
• Jackson, Ben
• Rambaut, Andrew
• Laguda-Akingba, Oluwakemi
• Gaseitsiwe, Simani
• von Gottberg, Anne
• de Oliveira, Tulio

Titel

Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5 in South Africa

Ist Teil von

• Nature medicine, 2022-09, Vol.28 (9), p.1785-1790

Ort / Verlag

United States: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Three lineages (BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant of concern predominantly drove South Africa's fourth Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) wave. We have now identified two new lineages, BA.4 and BA.5, responsible for a fifth wave of infections. The spike proteins of BA.4 and BA.5 are identical, and similar to BA.2 except for the addition of 69-70 deletion (present in the Alpha variant and the BA.1 lineage), L452R (present in the Delta variant), F486V and the wild-type amino acid at Q493. The two lineages differ only outside of the spike region. The 69-70 deletion in spike allows these lineages to be identified by the proxy marker of S-gene target failure, on the background of variants not possessing this feature. BA.4 and BA.5 have rapidly replaced BA.2, reaching more than 50% of sequenced cases in South Africa by the first week of April 2022. Using a multinomial logistic regression model, we estimated growth advantages for BA.4 and BA.5 of 0.08 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.08-0.09) and 0.10 (95% CI: 0.09-0.11) per day, respectively, over BA.2 in South Africa. The continued discovery of genetically diverse Omicron lineages points to the hypothesis that a discrete reservoir, such as human chronic infections and/or animal hosts, is potentially contributing to further evolution and dispersal of the virus.