BA.2.38-caused illness mild, hints at endemicity of SARS-CoV-2: Study

PUNE: Omicron sub-variant BA.2's offspring, BA.2.38, may be causing a spike in Maharashtra and other parts of India, but the illness it is causing is self-limiting and almost comparable with common cold-like illness indicating SARS-CoV-2's journey towards endemicity, reveals the first-of-its-kind clinical study of 116 patients found infected with BA.2.38 in the country.
Doctors attached with Pune-based B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, a state-run tertiary care referral unit, carried out the study and assessed the symptoms and illness pattern of BA.2.38 infected patients this month.
The fact that the share of infection caused by BA.2.38 is rising is known. But what it actually means in terms of its disease causing potential has been assessed for the first time in India.The study found it is only causing mild disease,” said a senior scientist from Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG). Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, lead investigator of the study, said,
“Those infected with it had fever, cough, bodyache, sore throat and headache — mainly upper respiratory tract symptoms mimicking common cold-like illness. A few also had diarrhoea.” Infectious disease specialist Dr Bharat Purandare said, “BA.2.38 is causing mild illness. The self-limited nature of illness in most cases is indicative of the endemicity of SARS-CoV-2.” Dr Sanjay Pujari, a member of the ICMR's national Covid task force, said,
“This is an interesting descriptive study of the early epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of patients infected with the BA2.38 variant. However, the interpretation is limited by small sample-size and no comparison with other circulating major variants; making it difficult to conclude on whether BA2.38 behaves differently as compared to other circulating variants.”
The clinical features and frequency of symptoms among those with mild illness with BA2.38 are quite similar to BA2 and BA1 variants. “It’s not surprising that among these patients, the majority had breakthrough infections after two doses of the vaccine. This reflects that most of our population has been vaccinated with two doses,” he said.