EU11: What you Need to Know About Vaccine Protection, How it Presents, and Clinical Considerations
This variant, which is an ancestor of Omicron, is an emerging variant that is being seen most frequently in Utah, California, and New York State.
The EU11 variant is an emerging COVID-19 strain that is being seen in very small numbers in over 20 states. At the moment, Utah has the highest concentration of cases with 107. The next highest state totals are in California with 62 cases and New York with 14.
The database, CoV-Spectrum, has been tracking cases and there is a reported 290 total cases in the United States. EU11 is a distant descendant of the XBB15 variant and Omicron, which is still the dominant strain in the country.
Summertime is typically a slower season for upper respiratory viruses, so it remains to be seen what the trajectory will be for EU11 in the coming months. In the meantime, it may be helpful to explore what to expect of this variant in terms of vaccine protection and considerations for this new strain.
Every year, public health officials decide upon an annual influenza vaccine schedule, and earlier this year, US federal officials decided to do something similar and host an annual meeting to discuss the dominant COVID-19 variants circulating and what the vaccines should protect against. An FDA VRBPAC meeting was held last month, and it was decided to recommend the vaccines be monovalent and contain proteins protecting against the XBB lineage.
As XBB is part of the Omicron strain, its believed the new vaccine compositions will protect against the EU11 variant, according to William Schaffner, MD, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
“The Food and Drug Administration, and the manufacturers have gotten together, and they will produce yet another updated vaccine, which will be ready for use sometime this fall. It will provide protection against all of these Omicron variants, and that would include EU11,” Schaffner said.
Contagion spoke to Schaffner who offered some insights on what to expect with the variant as well as considerations for getting both the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines this coming fall.
