South African doctors advise against underestimating the Omicron strain

After the first frightening information about the emergence of a new strain, many were reassured by the information that omicron does not cause serious illness. However, to calm down in advance, expecting that the new strain will turn out to be something frivolous, according to experts, it would be dangerous. Ir's reported by The Guardian.

At a briefing convened by the South African Ministry of Health on Monday, medical practitioners said that early cases are easy, but it is too early to draw conclusions. Typically, patients have a dry cough, fever, night sweats, and body aches in various locations. Many patients have unusual symptoms, especially extreme fatigue, and no one has reported a loss of taste or smell.

Vaccinated people usually cope with the disease much better. According to the first data, 87% of hospital admissions with omicron were among unvaccinated patients. There are also noticeable changes in the demographic profile: young people between the ages of 20 and a little over 30 are admitted with moderate and severe illnesses, some of them need intensive care. However, it is possible that these demographic differences are explained by the level of vaccination: 64% of people over 60 years old in South Africa received at least one dose, among 18-34-year-olds only 26%.

As encouraging as the early data are, they should be treated with caution as they are all based on very scarce data. Even the results of the first epidemiological studies will probably not be entirely correct, since it is difficult to determine the causal relationship of the severity of the disease with the new variant - especially now that many people have acquired immunity either after an illness or after vaccination.