A new sub-variant of the coronavirus is starting to spread in Europe: XEC. “There is no doubt that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will continue to evolve. The XEC variant, a recombinant of KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, is appearing in many countries with a growth advantage and could well be the next one we face,” warned American geneticist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute Eric Topol on the social network X at the end of August.
Detected in Germany
It first appeared in the United States, but its prevalence there remains low and it is still not tracked individually on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s variant tracking website, the Los Angeles Times. A strain must circulate at more than 1% nationally over a two-week period for it to be tracked, the media outlet specifies. However, it could dethrone KP.3.1.1, the last most common hyperinfectious subvariant nationwide.
But XEC is, on the other hand, gaining momentum in Western Europe. As in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. It is in Slovenia that it now has the highest prevalence rate (4%), as shown in this map highlighted by Dr. Topol. Data visualizer Mike Honey, mentioned by Eric Topol, also indicates strong growth of the variant in Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Symptoms
Several media outlets report symptoms similar to other variants of the virus: fever, sore throat, cough, loss of smell, loss of appetite and body aches, fatigue, nasal congestion, possible gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea and diarrhea.
Vaccines and surveillance
For Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional infectious disease manager for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the new vaccines offer good protection against XEC “because there is some overlap, it’s a sub-, sub-, sub-grandchild of the original Omicron variant. So there will still be some level of protection.”
Doctors and scientists around the world are in any case keeping an eye on this variant, which is set to evolve.
