Where Did The Omicron Virus Come From? There Are Three Main Possible Sources

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Omicron strains or contains cold virus gene fragments. Is it one of the characteristics of the Omicron variant that it spreads so fast? Where did this mutant come from? With the researchers' new discoveries, a corner of the mystery of Omicron seems to be slowly being touched.

Recently, U.S. researchers found that at least one mutation in the mutated new coronavirus Omicron strain was caused by a specific gene segment that is present in a variety of other viruses, including one that causes the common cold.

According to the Reuters website, the researchers found that this gene segment did not appear in several previously discovered versions of the new coronavirus, but was owned by a variety of other viruses and human genomes, including the coronavirus that causes the common cold H CoV-229E and AIDS HIV virus. The researchers believe that this gene segment may allow the Omicron strain to escape the body's immune system, which means that the Omicron strain may be more spreadable, but infected people have milder or even asymptomatic symptoms. It is understood that the research report was recently published on the website of a non-profit organization in the United States that shares scientific research information without peer review.

At present, there is no systematic research data on the transmissibility, pathogenicity, and immune evasion ability of Ormicon strains in the world, and further research is needed to understand.

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Timeline to sort out the key nodes in the discovery process of "Omicron"

On November 24, South Africa first reported to WHO the discovery of a new variant of the new coronavirus.

On November 26, WHO characterized the strain as the highest-level "variant of concern" and named it "Omicron".

On November 27, the scientific research team of the Children's Hospital of Rome in Italy released the world's first picture of the Omicron strain.

The picture shows that the spike protein of Omicron has 32 mutations, which is twice the number of the Delta strain. Among them, there are 10 mutations in the part of the "receptor binding domain" that the virus first contacts with human cells. 5 times the delta strain.

After a short period of time, "Omicron" spread rapidly around the world. So far, at least 38 countries and regions around the world have reported cases of Omicron strain infection.

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Expert: There are three main possible sources of "Omicron"

The Omicron strain has accumulated many mutations, but there is no evidence of accumulation of these mutations in known public databases, so where did the Omicron mutant come from? Eddie Holmes, a world-renowned expert on virus evolution, believes that there are three main possible sources of Omicron strains:

The first possibility is that the strain has been hiding in South Africa for a long time, but it has not been discovered before;

The second possibility is that the new coronavirus entered the animal somewhere and evolved, and then humans were infected again;

A third possibility is that earlier strains evolved in someone with a weakened immune system.

Tullio Oliveira, a well-known bioinformatician, is also the head of the South African Center for Outbreak Response and Innovation. It was he and his colleagues who discovered the Omicron variant and reported it to WHO.

As early as June this year, Oliveira's team published a research report on medRxiv, a platform for publishing preprints of medical research papers. A 36-year-old woman with advanced AIDS in South Africa carried the new coronavirus for 216 days, during which time the virus mutated 32 times in her body, including 13 mutations in the key spike protein, the report shows.

At the time, Oliveira had called for an estimated 8 million people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa who had not received treatment, many of whom had no idea they had HIV. And most of these people are young people, who have not been vaccinated against the new crown, and their immune systems are fragile, and they may "become a manufacturing factory of new crown mutants."

According to statistics, two-thirds of the world's AIDS patients live in sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa is the most severely AIDS-stricken country in the world. About 20% of the 7.5 million people are HIV carriers. However, WHO data shows that South Africa's new crown vaccination rate is only 24%. Recently, Oliveira further pointed out in a paper that the low vaccination rate is also one of the reasons for the mutation of the virus.

Before South Africa reported to WHO for the first time, the Netherlands was already "Omicron"

The latest investigation from the Netherlands shows that the Omicron strain was present in the Netherlands before South Africa first reported it to the World Health Organization.

On November 30, local time, the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment confirmed that two test samples collected in the country on November 19 and 23 were infected with the Omicron strain. South Africa first reported the Omicron strain to WHO on November 24. According to the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, one of the two infected people may have contracted Omicron in the Netherlands, and how the infection was still under investigation.

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"Omicron" is fast becoming the main mutant strain in South Africa

Where the "Omicron" came from remains to be further discovered by researchers, and one of the important issues facing the global fight against the epidemic is how to deal with it.

According to statistics from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in South Africa, on November 29, there were 2,273 new confirmed cases in South Africa. On March 2, the number of newly diagnosed cases exceeded 10,000, reaching 11,535. Epidemiologists in South Africa said that "Omicron" pushed South Africa to the fourth wave of the epidemic.

Richard Lessers, an epidemiologist at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa, said it was unclear whether the surge in cases was necessarily related to the mutant Omicron, but Omicron "is fast becoming a major virus in South Africa. mutated strain", pushing South Africa to the fourth wave of the epidemic.

It is worth noting that, according to the NBC report, in just 12 days, 90% of the confirmed cases of the new crown in South Africa were infected with the Omicron strain. By contrast, the beta and delta strains took about 100 days to account for 80 to 90 percent of the country's confirmed cases.

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This seems to suggest that Omicron is more contagious than beta and delta.

On December 2, a research team from the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NICD) in South Africa published a preliminary study report that showed the possibility of re-infection caused by the mutant strain of Omicron. Sex is three times higher than delta and beta mutant strains.

The World Health Organization said that 99% of the world's infection cases are still the "delta strain", and the world has not yet had a clear and comprehensive understanding of the "omicron strain", so it is impossible to predict whether it will replace the "delta strain". "become the main circulating mutant strain.

Angelique Coetzee, President of the South African Medical Association: I would like to say that the problem involves two levels, one is the scientific level and the other is the clinical level. At the clinical level, we have observed that the symptoms of infected people are generally milder.

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