Expert Explanation Of BA.2 Latest Omicron Subvariants

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Health Sciences expert from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI) Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama said BA.2 is the newest Omicron subvariant which is being increased in a number of countries.

"In several countries, the BA.2 variant is increasing, such as in India, the Philippines and there are also reports from Denmark, England and Germany," said Tjandra Yoga Aditama, quoted by Antara, Friday, January 28.

Tjandra said 89.1 percent (332,155) of the total 372,680 sequence samples reported to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) from various countries in the world as of Tuesday, January 25 were Omicron.

The rest are the Delta variant 39,804 sequence samples (10.7 percent), the Gana variant 28 sequences (less than 0.1 percent), the Alpha variant four sequences (less than 0.1 percent), other variants namely Mu and Lambda which are classified as Variant of Interest (VoI). ) of two sequences (less than 0.1 percent).

"Now there is a lot of talk about BA.2, one of the Omicron variants," he said.

The Director of Postgraduate Program at YARSI University said the Omicron variants include types B.1.1.529, BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3. "GISAID data on January 25, 2022 shows that 98.8 percent of the data in them are BA.1, although the number of countries reporting BA.2 also continues to increase," he said.

According to news in the mass media, said Tjandra, there has already been BA.2 Omicron in Indonesia. But the former WHO Director for Southeast Asia pushed for the report to be analyzed for its possible impact.

"We know that BA.2 is known as a stealth Omicron or a 'deceptive' Omicron, especially because of the deletion of the "S-Gene Target Failure (SGTF) phenomenon," he said.

SGTF is one of the methods used by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia in early detection of potential Omicron variants using reagents as raw material for the PCR rapid test before further analysis using the genome sequencing method.

"So that it can not be detected by the SGTF PCR examination, which is now starting to be reproduced in our country," he said.

Although the number of cases of the BA.2 variant is still very small, said Tjandra, if the number increases, it is not impossible to influence the policies that need to be taken in disease control efforts.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Health reported that as of Thursday, January 27, there were 8,077 confirmed cases, an increase from the previous day's 7,010 cases.

In it, there are three provinces with high confirmation cases, namely DKI with 4,149 cases with 3,920 local cases and 229 Foreign Travel Actors (PPLN), West Java 1,744 cases with 1,736 local cases and eight PPLN, Banten 1,291 cases with 1,272 local cases and 19 PPLN .