Filenews 30 November 2021
In the "vortex" of the Omicron mutation of the coronavirus, the planet is swirling with experts anxious about its effect on the course of the pandemic.
According to preliminary data - the new mutation was detected only on November 11 - Omicron is more volatile but does not imply high morbidity, that is, the need for hospitalization. However, experts are quick to note that this conclusion is drawn from the data so far concerning Africa, a continent with a predominantly young population, which is not the case in the advanced countries of the West.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee, president of the South African Medical Society, who was one of the first doctors to suspect that the coronavirus had mutated, explains that the symptoms of the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 are mild and patients do not need to be admitted to the hospital. She had observed on November 18 that seven patients in her clinic had different symptoms than those that accompany the world's dominant Delta strain but in any case of a "very mild form".
Since November 25, when the new strain was identified and officially named after the World Health Organization (WHO), scientists around the world have been thoroughly examining every new evidence concerning Omicron to find out how it is transmitted and whether existing vaccines provide any protection.
And since its spread beyond Africa has only just begun to be mapped, it is not yet clear whether the mild symptoms that characterize it in the cases of the first patients will affect other sufferers around the world.
According to Dr. Coetzee, a patient of hers on November 18 had reported that for two 24 hours he felt "extremely tired" with physical pain and headache.
«It was about a young man of about 33 years old who told me that he was feeling severe physical fatigue the previous days and that his body was hurting," she explains. However, Dr. Coetzee notes that the patient did not have a sore throat but as if something was tickling him in the throat, without coughing or loss of smell or taste, symptoms that have been associated with the other strains of the coronavirus.
«The symptoms at this stage look very much like a common viral infection," says Dr. Angelique Coetzee. She adds that 'this is why most patients with the Omicron mutation have very mild symptoms and no one has so far been admitted to hospital'.
From the clinical data so far, the Omicron mutation seems to affect mainly people 40 years of age and under, with the majority of them being unvaccinated.
