19 ottobre 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
La variante XEC<\/strong> del Sars-CoV-2<\/a><\/strong> preoccupa la comunit\u00e0 scientifica. Identificata per la prima volta in Germania durante l\u2019estate del 2024, XEC \u00e8 un ricombinante delle varianti KS.1.1 e KP.3.3 e, secondo un team di scienziati giapponesi, ha tutte le caratteristiche per diventare la variante predominante nei prossimi mesi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Uno degli aspetti che rende XEC particolarmente preoccupante \u00e8 la sua trasmissibilit\u00e0<\/strong>, superiore rispetto alla variante attualmente dominante, KP.3.1.1. In uno studio condotto dall\u2019Universit\u00e0 di Tokyo, i ricercatori hanno stimato il numero di riproduzione effettiva (Re) di XEC, ovvero il numero medio di nuovi casi che una persona infetta pu\u00f2 generare. In Paesi come gli Stati Uniti, questo valore \u00e8 risultato essere 1,13 volte maggiore rispetto a KP.3.1.1, suggerendo che XEC potrebbe presto soppiantare quest\u2019ultima<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n XEC presenta due ulteriori mutazioni nella proteina Spike<\/strong>, elemento chiave del virus per infettare le cellule umane. Queste mutazioni sembrano conferire al virus una maggiore infettivit\u00e0<\/strong> e una capacit\u00e0 di evasione immunitaria superiore a quella delle varianti precedenti. Gli esperimenti condotti su pseudovirus hanno mostrato che XEC \u00e8 pi\u00f9 resistente agli anticorpi generati da infezioni precedenti con altre varianti, in particolare KP.3.3 e JN.1. Questo potrebbe spiegare perch\u00e9 XEC riesce a diffondersi cos\u00ec rapidamente nonostante l\u2019immunit\u00e0 acquisita da vaccini e infezioni passate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dal punto di vista clinico, XEC sembra causare sintomi simili a quelli delle varianti Omicron: febbre, mal di gola, dolori muscolari e affaticamento<\/strong>. Tuttavia, si sta osservando un sintomo insolito che sembra essere pi\u00f9 frequente nei pazienti infettati da XEC: la perdita dell\u2019appetito<\/strong>, spesso accompagnata da diarrea<\/strong> e malessere generale<\/strong>. Questo sintomo, raramente segnalato con le precedenti varianti, sta attirando l\u2019attenzione dei medici, soprattutto nei Paesi dove XEC \u00e8 pi\u00f9 diffusa, come Regno Unito, Stati Uniti e Francia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonostante XEC non sembri causare una malattia pi\u00f9 grave rispetto alle varianti precedenti, la sua elevata trasmissibilit\u00e0 rappresenta una sfida significativa, soprattutto con l\u2019avvicinarsi dell\u2019inverno e la concomitante circolazione di altri virus respiratori. Le autorit\u00e0 sanitarie prevedono un incremento dei casi<\/strong>, e si raccomanda la vaccinazione con i vaccini aggiornati, che offrono una buona protezione contro XEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HEALTH<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Published September 18, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n COVID-19\u2019s summer surge is starting to cool off, the latest national data shows, but public health experts urge people not to let their guard down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cases and hospitalizations remain elevated, particularly among older adults and younger children, a Sept. 13 report<\/a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows. Plus, COVID activity historically spikes in the fall and winter months when more people are indoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also a new coronavirus variant that public health officials and virologists are keeping a close eye on. The strain, known as XEC, has been detected in several countries, including the U.S., where a handful of cases have been reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[XEC] is starting to really show evidence of being the most rapidly increasing variant that\u2019s causing COVID right now,\u201d says Andrew Pekosz, a professor in the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It \u201cappears to be the most likely one to get legs next,\u201d Eric Topol, M.D., founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, wrote<\/a> on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what you need to know about XEC, including how to amp up your protection against the COVID variant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers refer to the XEC variant, which is in the omicron family, as a recombinant virus \u2014 a hybrid of two other variants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that\u2019s another reason why people are interested in following [XEC] right now, because [recombinant] variants oftentimes have very unpredictable results, because they\u2019re basically resulting from two different variants sort of coming together and exchanging their genes,\u201d Pekosz says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n XEC is a mix of KP.3.3 \u2014 an offshoot of KP.3, one of the FLiRT variants<\/a> that drove the summer surge \u2014 and KS.1.1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though XEC has drifted from the variants that newly updated vaccines<\/a> target (KP.2 for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech\u2019s vaccines, and JN.1 for Novavax\u2019s shot), it shares similarities, so this year\u2019s vaccines should be \u201ca very good match\u201d against the new variant, Pekosz says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom a vaccine perspective, this is one that should be recognized by the immune response induced by vaccination,\u201d he explains. \u201c[People] can go out and get their vaccine, and it’ll work against this variant, as well as many of the ones that are circulating right now.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting vaccinated against COVID is especially important for older adults, who are at higher risk of becoming seriously sick from a coronavirus infection. This year\u2019s updated vaccines are available in pharmacies and clinics throughout the U.S. Doctors say it\u2019s safe to get your COVID vaccine, flu shot<\/a> and RSV vaccine<\/a> at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most cases of COVID-19 caused by XEC have been reported overseas, primarily in Europe. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t gotten to the United States yet in any significant numbers,\u201d Pekosz says \u2014 though this could change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to outbreak.info<\/a>, a COVID-19 tracker from Scripps, 23 cases of COVID-19 caused by XEC had been identified in the U.S. as of Sept. 3. The dominant variant in the U.S. is KP3.1.1, which accounts for more than half of coronavirus infections. \ufeff<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if XEC does spread more in the U.S., \u201cthere\u2019s no clear evidence\u201d that it would become a dominant variant, Pekosz says. It may fold into the \u201cswarm of variants,\u201d like the FliRT variants and others, causing infections in the U.S. over the past several months. \u201cThis may simply become one of those variants that\u2019s circulating together in the population,\u201d Pekosz says.\ufeff<\/p>\n\n\n\n ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scientists are still studying XEC, but \u201cso far nothing jumps out in terms of having a different disease pattern with this variant yet,\u201d Pekosz says. Meaning the symptoms you get from an infection caused by XEC are most likely going to be similar to symptoms you\u2019d experience from another omicron variant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the CDC, common symptoms of COVID-19 can include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut again, it\u2019s very early. So we need a little bit more data to see if that\u2019s happening,\u201d Pekosz says. \u201cRight now, the only thing that\u2019s clear is that it seems to be the fastest increasing variant in parts of Europe, in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n News of a new variant serves as a reminder that \u201cthis is a great time to get prepared\u201d for the fall and winter virus season, Pekosz says. In addition to getting vaccinated, he says, now is the time to stock up on home test kits, so if you experience COVID-like symptoms, you can test yourself for the virus and, if positive, talk to your doctor about antiviral treatments<\/a> to keep an infection from turning severe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The government is relaunching its COVID home test kit program<\/a> later in September. U.S. households will be able to order four free<\/a> coronavirus tests shipped to their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also home tests on the market that can tell you if you have COVID or flu, Pekosz notes. As with COVID, antiviral treatments can keep an influenza infection from turning severe, and these medications work best when started right away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[4,22,201],"class_list":["post-1773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-varianti","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-variante"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/xec.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1805,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions\/1805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asproposito.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Le caratteristiche di XEC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Mutazioni e immunoevasivit\u00e0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Un quadro clinico simile, ma con un sintomo insolito<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
La sfida per il futuro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The New XEC COVID Variant: 5 Things to Know<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Health officials are keeping a close eye on the latest strain of the coronavirus <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n1. XEC is a hybrid variant<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. New vaccines should be a good match<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Cases remain low in U.S. \u2014 but that could change<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Symptoms don\u2019t appear more severe<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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5. Older adults should get a plan in place <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n