Written by David CoxFunctional support person
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A new variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus is causing a surge in cases, showing how much the disease has changed since the pandemic began and what has happened to the “Covid toe.”
“For almost four years, I have managed to avoid coronavirus infection” TV writer Mehdi Hasan Tweeted 2 weeks ago. “But I finally got it. At the end of 2023.”
Hasan said his symptoms were thankfully mild, but he is one of many people reporting their first positive test for Sars-CoV-2, the virus causing the pandemic. He added that he was just a person.
What are the symptoms of JN.1
The number of people infected with the new coronavirus is starting to increase again. JN.1 Covid variant resultsWhich Appeared last September In France. Approximately 60% of new infections in early January were variants. According to data tracker From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
data from both at the same time CDC And that UK Health and Safety Executive shows that the number of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 has decreased significantly compared to January 2023. Primary care doctors say it is proving virtually impossible to differentiate between COVID-19 symptoms and influenza symptoms without the help of PCR tests.
“When we first contracted coronavirus, it was characterized by very strange and vague symptoms, including lightheadedness, fatigue, and a loss of taste and smell,” said GP Surgeon at Chartfield Surgery in south-west London, UK. , says Ziad Takumachi. “We now feel that it has mutated to have symptoms that are more similar to influenza, but clinically it is very difficult to differentiate between the two.”
All of this may suggest that the virus is evolving to become less virulent over time, but epidemiologists believe the reality of the situation is more nuanced.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that the virus is less pathogenic,” said Greg Towers, a professor of molecular virology at University College London. “Rather, we are transmitting it to people who have been previously infected with Sars-CoV-2 and are better at regulating the virus, so they are less likely to get sick. [their] It’s an immune response to it. ”
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Towers said the main lesson learned over the course of the pandemic is that the symptoms a patient presents are highly dependent on their previous immune status. During the first two years of Covid-19, an individual patient’s response to the virus was largely determined by their immune health and previous exposure to other coronaviruses.
Now in 2024, this is determined by a more complex combination of factors, including how many times the person has already had the virus, vaccination status, and whether immunity from vaccination may be waning .
As a result, Dennis Nash, an epidemiologist at the City University of New York, said people experiencing COVID-19 for the first time are at greater risk, especially if it has been a while since their last booster vaccination. It states that
“There are still people who are managing to stay COVID-free,” Nash said. “If you are unvaccinated or unvaccinated, you are at the highest risk of developing severe and long-lasting symptoms.”
Still, Sars-CoV-2 is also constantly mutating, subtly changing the way it attempts to enter the human body. The JN.1 variant includes: Improved ability to evade the immune systemFor example, compare with other Omicron subvariants. But this is also changing its effects on the human body.
In 2023, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine found that people currently infected with Omicron-related subvariants Only 6-7% less likely to lose their sense of smell or tastecompared to infections caused by the virus during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Instead, some clinicians, such as David Strain, an associate professor of cardiometabolic health at the University of Exeter in the UK, believe that because his patients are infected with JN.1 or EG, they may suffer from diarrhea or headaches. He told the BBC that he was likely to present with the disease. 5 variations.
“There’s a big change in the tropism of the virus, meaning which cells it infects,” Towers says. “And it’s governed by the spike protein sequence. Almost everyone in the world has been infected or has been vaccinated. So the virus has to evade the immune response to continue infecting. Because it’s under so much pressure, the spike protein has evolved a lot because it’s able to infect and invade different cells, which is why people no longer lose their sense of smell and taste. ”
Researchers are trying to understand whether the more subtle internal effects of Sars-CoV-2 infection differ between variants of the virus, or whether any differences are caused by reduced protection from previous vaccines. Still working on it. One ongoing concern is the ability of the virus to cause damage to blood vessels and internal organs. Generation of microclotsThe kidneys, which are made up of about a million tiny blood vessels called capillaries, appear to be particularly vulnerable, according to patients Strain has examined.
“While these are just observations, the new JN.1 variant appears to have increased microvascular complications and gradual changes in kidney function, which appear to be worse than some past variants,” Strain said. he says. “But it’s hard to tell whether that’s due to variants or the fact that it’s been 18 months to two years since many people last received a vaccine.”
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Some new evidence suggests microscopic blood clots may be the cause of Long coronavirus – the study In August 2023, researchers even suggested that they may be contributing to the cognitive impairment experienced by many long-corona patients, and researchers are now predicting a further surge in chronic patients. I am worried that I will be exposed. However, it will be difficult to distinguish whether this is the result of a new variant or a decline in herd immunity.
“Research from March to summer 2020 shows that the risk of long-term coronavirus infection in any case is It was about 10%Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said: “The risk of Long Covid now appears to be decreasing as the number of people infected is much higher, but this is due to the milder variants. “It’s not because of this, but because of the degree of protection provided by vaccination.” BMJ paper A national cohort in Sweden has shown that each additional dose increases protection. ”
All of this shows that staying up to date on vaccine boosters remains important for people of all ages, but while politicians have long been keen to move on from the coronavirus, Strain said says it’s important to continue to monitor how different variants continue to infect us.
“Symptoms seem to change from one variant to another,” he says. “There were times when the initial symptom was a headache, and other times when it was gastrointestinal symptoms. We all want to get back to normal life, but the reality is that coronavirus is not going anywhere. not.”
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What happened to “Covid toe”?
During the early months of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, reports of unusual and mysterious symptoms of the disease began to emerge. Patients had developed painful and excruciatingly itchy lesions on their feet and hands.these Chilblain-like skin swelling and redness It has become commonly known as “Covid toe”.
Doctors and scientists were puzzled – how could a respiratory virus cause such strange symptoms in the extremities of the body?
Tests on samples taken from people with COVID-19 toe did not detect the presence of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in chilblains. , suggesting that the virus itself was not the direct cause. Instead, a number of hypotheses have been proposed, including that it may be the cause. Interferon An overreaction by a part of the immune system that produces a protein called IFN-1.which helps the immune system target cells infected with viruses.
Others have suggested this may not be unique to COVID-19 at all. Rather, it is just a reaction that occurs in people who are prone to chilblains..
Another theory was that lockdown rules meant more people would become infected. You just don’t wear the right shoes around the house and you just spend too much time sitting still..
Curiously, as the virus evolved and lockdowns were lifted, the occurrence of these skin problems also became apparent. A study by scientists at King College London, UK, studied the reported symptoms of more than 348,000 people who recorded their coronavirus symptoms via a mobile app, and found It became clear that related skin symptoms were the cause. Decrease in recent waves of Sars-CoV-2 virus.
In the Omicron variant wave, 11% of people reported symptoms, compared to 17% in the Delta variant wave, where symptoms tended to last longer.
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