Scientists in Cyprus have identified a new strain of coronavirus – “deltacron”… This is a hybrid of the deadly “delta” and the highly infectious “omicron”, which contains mutations of both strains. And although some researchers continue to argue that the omicron may be the last chord of a pandemic, others warn that this is just a new beginning.
Despite the holidays, work in the Rospotrebnadzor laboratories continues. They carefully study the smears and those who recently arrived from abroad, and those who did not travel anywhere and still received a positive test result.
A special device, a sequencer, helps to distinguish the omicron from the delta. It is loaded non-stop. Cases of transmission of a new strain within the country have already been recorded. And the share of “omicron” in the structure of infections begins to grow.
“At the end of the holidays, perhaps immediately after them, we may experience an increase in the incidence rate due to the spread of the new omicron strain,” said Kamil Khafizov, head of the scientific group for the development of new methods for diagnosing human diseases at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.
The geography of the spread of the new strain is also expanding: Moscow and the region, Rostov-on-Don, and in the new year, Karelia, Perm Territory, Irkutsk. In Nizhny Novgorod, a 28-year-old graduate student from Nigeria is waiting for a negative test in a separate isolated box. Omicron gave her pneumonia. But less than 20% of the lungs are affected.
“Unlike the delta variant, there was no pronounced decrease in saturation,” said Maxim Zlobin, head of the covid hospital at the Semashko Regional Clinical Hospital in Nizhny Novgorod.
With the “omicron”, the severe course is indeed only half as common, and scientists now understand why. And wuhan virus, and the delta strain were able to spread throughout the body, remaining unnoticed by interferons – proteins of the immune system that are the first to react to the invasion of the virus. The defense worked only when the virus got to the lungs. The omicron, which multiplies in cells dozens of times more actively, is no longer able to escape unnoticed from interferons.
“The response of interferons wakes up on time, and even for those who do not have an antibody response, it also helps,” said Ancha Baranova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, professor at the School of Systems Biology at George Mason University (Virginia, USA).
Yulia Demina also suffered a mild “omicron”. She became the first patient in the country with a new strain. She got infected while on vacation in South Africa, quarantined upon arrival at the observatory hotel, where the temperature rose. The symptoms of the “delta” that she suffered in the summer were not at all similar. “There was nasal congestion, but there was no loss of smell, loss of appetite, just a sore throat,” Yulia recalls. The treatment took about a week. There were no minor and long-term consequences.
But “omicron”, of course, cannot be compared with ARVI. Our doctors were among the first to know this. Exclusive footage from South Africa, where Russian doctors, on behalf of the President, went back in November. The main conclusion of the trip: “omicron” rarely causes respiratory failure, but exacerbates chronic diseases.
“The entire intensive care unit there is clogged with unvaccinated people with diabetes, chronic renal failure, and problems with blood coagulability. “Vector” Rospotrebnadzor, Doctor of Biological Sciences.
For those who have not been vaccinated, have not been ill, or have suffered from covid for a long time, it seems that there is no chance of not getting infected at all. Officially: “omicron” is the second most contagious among all existing viruses. One sick person transmits the infection to eight more. Only measles is more dangerous: one infects nine.
“If in the previous waves of coronavirus someone could sit out, now it seems that absolutely everyone is infected. This is indicative. Previously, 1-2 football players per team were ill, and now the whole team is sick at once,” said Maxim Skulachev, virologist, leading scientific employee of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Data from South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom agree: children are now at risk. “We see that the hospitalization of children in all countries where the omicron has reached is breaking all imaginable and inconceivable records,” said Alexander Dragan, an open data analyst. This is also associated with the peculiarities of the “omicron” – it multiplies more actively in the upper respiratory tract, provoking bronchitis and bronchiolitis, which are dangerous for babies, and with the fact that most children have no protection.
“Among children, there is a very low level of immunity. And it is in these groups of unvaccinated people that we see the greatest distribution and the most severe course,” explained Tatyana Ruzhentsova, deputy director of the Moscow Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Rospotrebnadzor.
Long-term forecasts, however, are still optimistic. Experiments in South Africa have shown that antibodies after the transferred “omicron” are able to neutralize the “delta”, albeit three times worse. Whether this rise will be the last or the waves of “omicron” and “delta”, gradually weakening, will still replace each other – scientists argue about this. But they agree: the pandemic is entering its final phase.
“He will quickly infect a huge number of people, and then he will have nowhere to hide, because the virus cannot exist without constantly infecting people. This is not a bacterium or a fungus, it cannot sit out in the external environment. It will quickly re-infect everyone and disappear,” – says Maxim Skulachev.
“Most likely, we will have an unstable equilibrium, such a glass with jelly. Either one is the most important in jelly, then another, and depending on this, there will be a more or less acute current. But the course, of course, is for it to have a seasonal course. and has lost its pandemic severity, “said Ancha Baranova.
The omicron invasion does not seem to be avoided. The doctors are already preparing. The beds in covid hospitals that have freed up during the decline in morbidity are made up and connected to oxygen in order to receive patients at any time. Only the vaccine, which still reliably protects against hospitalization, will help to ensure that you do not end up in these wards.
…
ttn-20