The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added a new subvariant to its COVID-19 tracker—XBB.1.16, also known as Arcturus—along with one new symptom not usually seen in previous variants/subvariants: conjunctivitis.
Talk about this new variant.
The omicron subvariant was first detected in January and has since been identified in 29 countries so far, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) last week.
The organization dubbed Arcturus as a “variant under monitoring” last month, which means that it has genetic changes that could potentially affect its virus characteristics and lead to a growth advantage over other variants.
What about transmissibility?
Arcturus could be as much as 1.2 times more infectious than the Kraken variant, according to research out of the University of Tokyo. Despite this, however, experts have noted that the strain doesn’t appear more dangerous than other variants.
How quickly is it spreading in the U.S.?
While not the dominant variant in the United States at the moment—that would be the XBB.1.5 variant, dubbed “Kraken”—Arcturus has spread across the country in recent weeks.
The CDC reported that the number of Arcturus cases jumped from 3.9% the week of April 2 to 7.2% cases starting the week of April 9, marking it as the second highest prevalence of any circulating strain.
How about globally?
In India, the situation is more serious: the country has seen a jump in cases by almost 50% just last week. The variant is also on the rise in countries such as Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
So what is this new symptom?
Along with a high fever and cough, “itchy” conjunctivitis (pink eye) without pus but with sticky eyes is being reported in pediatric patients under the age of 12.
Symptoms include tearing/watery eyes, redness, pain or irritation, itching, and discharge from the eyes—similar to seasonal allergies.
Wait .. this isn’t exactly a ‘new’ symptom, right?
Sort of. While conjunctivitis has been noted as a potential ocular manifestation of COVID-19, it hasn’t commonly been observed in pediatric patients before—only adults.
Expert thoughts?
Matthew Binnicker, PhD, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Clinical Virology Laboratory, said that COVID-caused conjunctivitis in young patients is a new feature in cases.“This is not something that we’ve seen with prior strains of the virus,” he stated.
Anything else?
Vipin M. Vashishtha, MD, an Indian pediatrician and member of the WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net program, tweeted earlier this month a visual case of one pediatric patient with conjunctivitis COVID-19 symptoms.
Take home.
While the WHO reported Arcturus to have an increased growth compared to previous strains, it noted that “however, their immune evasion characteristics are similar.”
No lab studies have been reported on the variant as of yet.
According to WHO earlier this month, “there have been no reports of higher severity for the currently circulating variants, although some countries have reported an increase in hospitalizations following a rise in case incidence.”