Although there is an epidemic See After the pandemic in Argentina, the cases of coronavirus increased this past week For the third time in a row. There are experts who say it is “premature” to talk about the start of a new wave, but they do not rule it out. And if you now hear that”nothing else gives you a cold“Vulnerable groups remain at risk.
in the middle of counterpoint What is this You What does it look like –And with our guard down because of a health crisis that has already “softened” us–, experts interviewed bugle They give us certainty from the most visible: COVID-19 vs “COVID-22”. What does the virus do to the body today?
Since 2020, era wuhan of covid, Symptoms Changed (Much), This is the era of Omicron and its sub-versions. Host changed and host changed. In addition, since there are no restrictions and almost no mask, he lives with historical winter respiratory diseases.
so we suspect “If there is cough but no fever”And “It’s a sore throat but it’s not like angina” And we also evaluated the color of the mucus.
whereas, Now hardly anyone sweepsThere are people who receive the fifth dose in the city and province, the national health ministry just announced 6 months from the Covid vaccination, and Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccines praised by scientific critics for their RNA technology messengers, in advance. An upgrade to Omicron’s mutation.
Signs of Tomorrow and (Not) Today
all we have in the country subtypes of omicron (technically, sublineage) Considered “of interest” or “of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO). It includes BA.1, BA.2, BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1.
The latest official report on genomic sequencing released by the PAIS Project and the Malbran Institute reported that as of July 1, when cases were low, the fourth wave was from the BA.2 lineage. But that BA.2.12.1 was found in 5-26% of cases and BA.4/BA.5 in between 6-25%.
The latter, BA.5, is already branded in the world: “Worst Edition”, not because it is more harmful, but because it produces a global increase in cases: 30% more in just 15 days.
It’s worth returning to the question: What traits changed (and why) from 2020 to today’s subtypes?
national statistics office (ONS), a UK body that conducts detailed analysis of a very large percentage of cases, Breaks down related symptoms And how they differed in different waveforms.
“There are fewer and fewer symptoms being reported,” he says. He rated the classic combo. one from 2020 It is fought at home with paracetamolCough, fatigue, headache, body and throat.
“The Symptoms of loss of taste and smell Micron is at its lowest level since prevailing (December 2021),” details the ONS. Terms of Service (whether it dries or not is not clear) has been maintained since the beginning of the epidemic, followed by Throat pain You Headache, Fever – the “bump” of infection in previous waves – is followed by diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and body aches.
Data in the “pure” state you requested bugle As for the nation’s health ministry, they do not exist in Argentina. The weekly report only counts positive (31,845), deceased (36) and occupied beds in intensive care. to talk It seems likeYou have to go with the people who are face to face with the patients and see what is not happening anymore.
“we are looking less skin manifestations Now (rash and pernio erythema, like chilblains, which were less common in previous waves) and higher symptoms (not in the lungs): sore throat, itchy or painful swallowing and no angina, chills. And not so much pneumonia,” he details bugle Infectious specialist Elena Obieta, chief of San Isidro’s Communicable and Emerging Diseases Service.
Regarding the “cold” that is talked about a lot with “this COVID”, Obieta notes that among the symptoms “the fever persists”, even if it does not reach 40 degrees, and that’s a fascination. Is color of mucus, There is a discharge from the throat or nose, he clarifies that “if it is covid it does not have to be green. It can be like white or egg white,
What really defines it is the swab, but even in the largest clinics, although there are no queues or collapses for testing, They are directed by “Clinic” And they only swab “per protocol” cancer patients or patients with comorbidities if there are multiple concomitant symptoms.
“It is clear that by changing the criteria and testing only older people or those with comorbidities, We are seeing only a small part of what exists“, says physicist and researcher at Konisset Jorge Aliga. Sub-tests also shadows on today’s signs,
Lautaro de Vedia, infectious disease specialist at Hospital Muniz and former president of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI), explains bugle That “out of 50 beds in treatment which we had occupied by covid, today we have 5”.
Before Micron, 100% of That Hospital Occupied Theirs they didn’t even have a vaccine, Today 60% are in that group. “There are also people who don’t have incomplete vaccination or some comorbidity. But very few. Little lung involvement is seen and more chills, sore throat. Some earache, sometimes.”
Those who came undefeated and now got infected, they have a worse time than a reinfected,
I“There is absolutely no, beyond the perception of personal matters around us” More symptomatology in this new wave of infections, In Argentina, BA.2 continues to dominate and BA.4 is increasing, although we do not yet have local data. There are no variants that are associated with more severe cases, neither BA.4, nor a low proportion of asymptomatic individuals,” explains Georg Gefner, senior researcher at Conisat at the Institute for Biomedical Research on Retroviruses and AIDS (INBIRS). Huh.
At the same time, he noted that “it is already a bit difficult to trace the symptoms of a vaccinated and a non-vaccinated person”, because “of the successive waves of Covid, possibly a person who believes he was not infected”. got infected”, he says and he gives the example of boys in schools.
It also details the lack of definitions on long covid or persistent covid. “Some say an incidence of 30%, others 6% or 5%. That’s a very important difference. But the syndrome that characterizes the long COVID change on paper, Studying that in terms of symptoms is a pending issue,” Geffner closes.
How much did the host change and how much did the host change
From genomic sequencing, virologist Humberto Debate, member of the PAIS project, says that covid symptom ranking “It has a lot more to do with the host than with the guest.”
This confirms that “although the virus has mutated (microns have more difficulty colonizing the lungs)” it has more to do with changes in symptomatology. “Preimmunity” acquired by the population in different waves. Either by infection or by vaccines. “It makes the picture different in future transitions. often lighter“he scores.
To debate, although there is protection against severe forms and death thanks to vaccines, “it is important not to eliminate the hypothesis that it is COVID because ‘He just has a cold and a muzzle’ You ‘He has no fever or headache’, Testing is important to protect risk groups. And testing people who are not in that group is the way to prevent them from bringing the virus to vulnerable people.” This has been the case since the start of the pandemic.
