Not much is known about the Corona variant Omikron, but it is already considered worrying.
Experts as well as Karl Lauterbach now express a clear HIV thesis.
Berlin - The corona virus has Germany firmly under control again, the RKI reports new depressing infection numbers every day.
Then at the end of November the bad news: a new variant was discovered in South Africa, the Corona variant Omikron has been making headlines again since then.
Experts are now expressing a surprising suspicion: the mutation could have originated in an HIV patient.
Experts express suspicion: Omikron could have originated in HIV patients
The omicron variant has not yet been definitively researched, and the effect of the corona vaccines on the mutation is also unclear. According to experts, however, the mutation, which carries a surprising number of mutations, could have originated in a patient with HIV or another form of immunodeficiency. As Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology (DGfI), told the dpa news agency, this suspicion is conceivable and likely. Similar findings have already been published in other cases.
The virus could multiply for weeks in people with a weakened immune system.
"During this process,
isolated mutations can occur that may not be of any benefit to the virus, but which can continue to multiply due to the lack of control by the immune system," explains Watzl.
In this way, additional mutations could then arise.
Not the first time that this suspicion has been voiced by an expert.
On Friday, SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach said on Twitter that the many mutations would speak for the development in HIV patients.
Corona variant Omikron - Lauterbach also shares the HIV thesis
Compared to the original coronavirus from Wuhan, the Omikron variant has an unusually high number of around 30
amino acid changes in the spike protein alone. These include mutations that are known to be associated with greater transmissibility and Immunescape. There are also many mutations, the meaning of which is still unclear. "Even if we know or can estimate the effect of individual mutations from the other variants, it is currently unclear what effect this combination of mutations will have," explained Watzl.
Many HIV patients in Africa are not being adequately treated, which is why their immune system is significantly weakened, said Watzl.
In order to avoid the spread of such extensively modified variants as Omikron, it would therefore be important to identify infected people with weakened immune systems and to isolate them until they are no longer infectious.
"Because even if the virus mutates strongly in such a person, it is only the transmission of the mutated virus that is really dangerous."