Disease outbreaks and other matters of airline medical interest
From Airfinity’s curated analysis of various health and media sources and from the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) Weekly Communicable Disease Threats Report:
- The burden of COVID-19 has begun to decline in the US and across Europe, while increasing in Mexico as the COVID-19 winter wave continues.
- JN.1 seems to be the current dominant variant in almost all G20 nations. Notable exceptions are Japan, South Korea and China, where JN.1 is rising but EG.5.1.1 remains dominant, and Russia, where XBB.1.16 is still dominant.
- In December 2023, the WHO classified JN.1 as a Variant of Interest (VOI) due to its rapidly increasing spread. Current evidence, meanwhile, shows that the risk to public health from this strain at the global level is low. JN.1 is a sublineage of BA.2.86.1 and contains the L455S mutation in the spike protein, which is associated with very high immune escape but significantly attenuated infectivity. In vitro data suggest that vaccines are still effective against JN.1.
- In most of Europe, rates of respiratory illness in the community remained elevated and at levels above baseline. Seasonal influenza is now circulating at higher levels than SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).