Thailand Detects First Case of Drug-Resistant Omicron BQ.1 Subvariant

Foreign tourists walk along the popular Khaosan Road in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 17, 2022. Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

Thailand has detected its first case of the new Omicron BQ.1 subvariant, which experts believe could be highly contagious and resistant to the antibody medications used to protect against COVID-19.

The Center for Medical Genomics at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok issued a warning on Oct. 18 about BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, both of which are descendants of the Omicron BA.5 subvariant.

One case of BQ.1 had been detected in Thailand, based on the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data—an international genomic database for influenza viruses—the center said, without elaborating on the case.

The center cited an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounted for more than 11 percent of the current infections in the United States.

India also reported one case of BQ.1 in Pune, Maharashtra, on Oct. 18.

The Center for Medical Genomics claimed that BQ.1 spreads about 15 percent more quickly than BA.5.2 and about 14 percent faster than BA.2, and that it could potentially become a dominant strain by the end of the year or early 2023.

Both BA.2 and BA.5.2 are subvariants of Omicron, a SARS-CoV-2 strain.

However, the center stated that no clinical data suggest that BQ.1 or BQ.1.1 can cause severe infections or more deaths than previous subvariants.

BQ.1, BQ.1.1 Have ‘Troublesome Doubling Time’

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the two sublineages have “qualities or characteristics that could evade some of the interventions we have.”

“When you get variants like that, you look at what their rate of increase is as a relative proportion of the variants, and this has a pretty troublesome doubling time,” he said in an interview with CBS News on Oct. 14.

Fauci said the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are potentially resistant to monoclonal antibody drugs such as Evusheld and have a higher transmission rate.

“That’s the reason why people are concerned about BQ.1.1, for the double reason of its doubling time and the fact that it seems to elude important monoclonal antibodies,” he said.

A group of Chinese scientists published a preprint study on Oct. 4, claiming that BQ.1.1 is one of the “most antibody-evasive [strains] tested” and is “far exceeding” that of Omicron BA.5 and approaching the coronavirus SARS-CoV-1 level.

The study was published on the biology preprint server bioRxiv but hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. It stated that BQ.1.1 exhibited strong resistance to monoclonal antibody medications such as Evusheld and Bebtelovimab.