NIH issues advisory on JN.1 sub-variant of COVID-19

Islamabad: The National Institute of Health (NIH) has issued an advisory for the prevention and control of JN.1 Sub-variant of the COVID-19 virus.

According to NIH, the objective of the advisory was to alert and facilitate the health authorities and other stakeholders for ensuring timely prevention and control measures encompassing preparedness to deal with such patients in future.

The advisory said that JN.1 is classified as a Variant of Interest (VOI) and fundamentally an offshoot of BA.2.86 sub-variant omicron variant.

The COVID-19 virus, very first reported in August 2023 by US-CDC. However, in recent weeks, JN.1 has been reported in many countries, and its prevalence is rapidly increasing globally.

This rapid growth is observed across the three WHO regions with consistent sharing of SARS-CoV-2 sequences, like the region of the Americas, the Western Pacific and the European regions, with the largest increase seen in Western Pacific from 1.1% in epidemiological week 44 to 65.6% in epidemiological week 48.