To fight Omicron, we need to trace its origin: Health experts

South Africa and Botswana have been in a tizzy ever since Omicron a SARSCoV2 Variant of Concern was first detected in November Many countries in the world including EU US Canada UK Russia Japan and India have either enforced strict travel bans or tightened borders But according to health experts this kneejerk reaction from global countries might do little to help the current situation especially since both these African nations have repeatedly denied being the ldquocountry of originrdquo of the variantWhatrsquos most worrisome say health experts is that the new variant is being reported among people who had no travel history to either Botswana or South AfricaDr Lieve Fransen policy maker European UnionInstead of shooting in the dark experts said that countries with strong genome sequencing capabilities should make sincere attempts to trace Omicronrsquos origin at the earliest If not they believe that we could find ourselves in a similar situation like we did last year when the pandemic first broke in Wuhan but no one knows howStop the blame gameDr Subhash Hira professor of Global Health at University of WashingtonSeattle and a member of WHOGeneva COVID19 review panels said that instead of discriminating against South Africa and Botswana we should appreciate ldquotheir transparent and prompt sharing of pandemic informationrdquo ldquoActive surveillance and swift reporting from these countries allowed others to take precautions against the circulation of the new variantrdquo said Dr HiraDr HiraAccording to him the ldquotravel bans and blame game smack of racismrdquo He added that the ldquogood practicerdquo followed by these countries was in stark contrast to the conduct of China in September 2019 which delayed early reporting of SARSCoV2 for over three monthsScientists he said are of the opinion that such fast emergent of variants of concern would most likely happen in countries that have a very low level of vaccinated population Dr Ketan Vagholkar professor of surgery at DY Patil Medical College shares similar concerns ldquoThe genome of this variant is similar to the mid2020 strain Therefore its origin could be cryptic mostly from an unmonitored region or incubation in an immunocompromised hostrdquo he said Dr Hira feels that in the larger interest of public health we would need to determine the country of origin of Omicron at the earliest ldquoso that the likely causes of these rapid variants could be addressed on a war footingrdquoDr Wiqar Shaikh Dr Ketan Vagholkar and Dr Santosh BansodeDr Santosh Bansode head of the department Emergency Medicine Wockhardt Hospitals said that the need of the hour is a strong leadership that will carry out direct investigations about the variant ldquoIf we know the effect of vaccines on this new variant we wouldnrsquot have to think about extreme options like lockdowns We must remain cautious and not panicrdquoSo far there is no direct evidence to suggest that the Omicron variant is more transmissible than other variants ldquoWe donrsquot know even know if it poses increased risks of severe disease and hospitalisation However preliminary evidence does suggest that infection of unvaccinated and even fully vaccinated individuals is happening with this variantrdquo said Dr HiraDr Vagholkar said that currently all the evidence is purely speculative ldquoAs more cases are seen the biological behaviour of the Omicron variant will become apparentWhether vaccines could offer protection continues to be a contentious issuerdquoOrigin mattersDr Wiqar Shaikh professor of medicine Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals said that the origin of the recently discovered Omicron variant of the SARSCoV2 virus continues to remain an unsolved mystery Omicron was first reported on November 11 in Botswana Dr Shaikh said that the government of Botswana had said that Omicron was detected in four foreign nationals who entered the country on a diplomatic mission Soon after South Africa also reported the variant Interestingly enough it has emerged that Netherlands could have had Omicron cases a week before South Africa According to WHO the country of origin is still ldquounknownrdquoDr Shaikh said that what is clear as of now is that given its genomic structure Omicron didnrsquot develop from one of the earlier variantsmdashAlpha Delta or Lambda At present several theories are circulating around the origin see boxHe however feels that itrsquos unlikely that we will ever know precisely where Omicron first emergedSpeaking to midday Dr Lieve Fransen a wellknown policy maker at a senior management level in the European Union said that when a new virus is discovered it is important to understand where it comes from ldquoThis is critical to be able to identify and isolate the source and prevent further introductions of the virus into the human population It also helps to understand the process of the beginning of the outbreak which should be used to inform the response to prevent future spillovers from animals to humans and to rapidly stop the spread before it becomes a pandemicrdquo said Dr FransenCurrently the zoonotic source of SARSCoV2 is still unknown and experts are not yet sure how precisely humans were initially infected with it ldquoHowever all available evidence suggests that SARSCoV2 has a natural animal origin and most probably has its ecological reservoir in batsrdquoFor viruses to survive they need to invade living cells and hijack those cells to replicate and infect other cells over and over again ldquoThe virus makes copies of themselves in this process developing properties that make them more successful in transmitting and replicating than the original virus Once a virus further multiplies and spreads new variants pop up This is also the case with the SARSCoV2 virusrdquo Dr Fransen explainedShe said that variants will always develop as long as the whole world is not fully vaccinated or has antibodies ldquoWe always expected more variants to be discovered The real question is not where it originated but if the new variant escapes immunity created by the vaccinerdquoThe ongoing blame game comes as little surprise to her ldquoEach time the world has been confronted with epidemic diseases something similar has happened For example the first Syphilis outbreak occurred in 149495 in Naples Italy during a French invasion Because it was spread by returning French troops the disease was known as a lsquoFrench diseasersquo The other example is the Spanish flu that did not originate in Spain but in the USArdquo she saidAccording to her the discovery of the Omicron variant in Botswana and South Africa reflects ldquoscientific and transparency successrdquo that needs to translatein a ldquoresponse successrdquoldquoThe focus of the existing public health measures would be to protect against this strain the blame game will only be counterproductiverdquo The many theories about Omicronrsquos originIt came from animals It is possible that the original SARSCoV2 virus strain infected some unknown animal population and evolved as it spread amongst them and has recently spilled into human beings as OmicronCryptic or severe spread in an unmonitored region The original strain possibly circulated in a location in the world which was not monitored and this enabled the virus to evolve by the time the virus was detected it had enough mutations to make it more transmissibleIncubation in a person who was immunocompromised An immunocompromised state is one in which the immune system or defence system of the body has been suppressed for some reasonmdashHIVAIDS being one of the commonest causes The body of an HIVAIDS patient is one place where the virus could be in hiding while it evolved to finally become OmicronCourtesyDr Wiqar Shaikh