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Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022

Since its initial detection, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineage BA.2 has been spreading rapidly worldwide. The aims of this study were to describe the first 284 patients infected with the Omicron BA.2 variant of concern (VOC) in the Apulia region of southern Italy and to assess the differences in the...

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Autores principales: Loconsole, Daniela, Centrone, Francesca, Sallustio, Anna, Accogli, Marisa, Casulli, Daniele, Sacco, Davide, Zagaria, Riccardo, Morcavallo, Caterina, Chironna, Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9146056/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35632430
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050674
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author Loconsole, Daniela
Centrone, Francesca
Sallustio, Anna
Accogli, Marisa
Casulli, Daniele
Sacco, Davide
Zagaria, Riccardo
Morcavallo, Caterina
Chironna, Maria
author_facet Loconsole, Daniela
Centrone, Francesca
Sallustio, Anna
Accogli, Marisa
Casulli, Daniele
Sacco, Davide
Zagaria, Riccardo
Morcavallo, Caterina
Chironna, Maria
author_sort Loconsole, Daniela
collection PubMed
description Since its initial detection, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineage BA.2 has been spreading rapidly worldwide. The aims of this study were to describe the first 284 patients infected with the Omicron BA.2 variant of concern (VOC) in the Apulia region of southern Italy and to assess the differences in the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 and BA.2 variants. The demographic characteristics of patients, as well as information about symptoms, vaccinations and hospitalizations for COVID-19, were collected. A subset of samples from patients infected with the BA.2 variant was subjected to whole-genome sequencing. The characteristics of the first 284 patients infected with Omicron BA.2 and the first 175 patients infected with Omicron BA.1 were compared. The proportion of patients infected with the BA.2 variant rapidly increased, from 0.5% during the third week of 2022 to 29.6% during the tenth week of 2022. Ten isolates (out of 34 BA.2 isolates) contain the substitutional mutation, H78K in ORF3a, and four isolates include two mutations, A2909V in ORF1a and L140F in ORDF3a. Compared with patients infected with BA.1, those infected with BA.2 were more likely to be symptomatic and booster-vaccinated, and showed a shorter time from the last dose of vaccine to infection. The high transmissibility and immune-evasive properties of Omicron BA.2, which will become the leading SARS-CoV-2 VOC, suggest that short-term public health measures should not be discontinued in Italy.
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spelling pubmed-91460562022-05-29 Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022 Loconsole, Daniela Centrone, Francesca Sallustio, Anna Accogli, Marisa Casulli, Daniele Sacco, Davide Zagaria, Riccardo Morcavallo, Caterina Chironna, Maria Vaccines (Basel) Brief Report Since its initial detection, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineage BA.2 has been spreading rapidly worldwide. The aims of this study were to describe the first 284 patients infected with the Omicron BA.2 variant of concern (VOC) in the Apulia region of southern Italy and to assess the differences in the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 and BA.2 variants. The demographic characteristics of patients, as well as information about symptoms, vaccinations and hospitalizations for COVID-19, were collected. A subset of samples from patients infected with the BA.2 variant was subjected to whole-genome sequencing. The characteristics of the first 284 patients infected with Omicron BA.2 and the first 175 patients infected with Omicron BA.1 were compared. The proportion of patients infected with the BA.2 variant rapidly increased, from 0.5% during the third week of 2022 to 29.6% during the tenth week of 2022. Ten isolates (out of 34 BA.2 isolates) contain the substitutional mutation, H78K in ORF3a, and four isolates include two mutations, A2909V in ORF1a and L140F in ORDF3a. Compared with patients infected with BA.1, those infected with BA.2 were more likely to be symptomatic and booster-vaccinated, and showed a shorter time from the last dose of vaccine to infection. The high transmissibility and immune-evasive properties of Omicron BA.2, which will become the leading SARS-CoV-2 VOC, suggest that short-term public health measures should not be discontinued in Italy. MDPI 2022-04-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9146056/ /pubmed/35632430 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050674 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Brief Report
Loconsole, Daniela
Centrone, Francesca
Sallustio, Anna
Accogli, Marisa
Casulli, Daniele
Sacco, Davide
Zagaria, Riccardo
Morcavallo, Caterina
Chironna, Maria
Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022
title Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022
title_full Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022
title_fullStr Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022
title_full_unstemmed Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022
title_short Characteristics of the First 284 Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Subvariant at a Single Center in the Apulia Region of Italy, January–March 2022
title_sort characteristics of the first 284 patients infected with the sars-cov-2 omicron ba.2 subvariant at a single center in the apulia region of italy, january–march 2022
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9146056/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35632430
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050674
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