Recently, Omicron mutant strain XBB has attracted widespread social attention. Up to now, the strains discovered in China are still mainly BF.7 and BA.5.2. The XBB strain discovered in Shanghai has only been detected among a very small number of people entering quarantine and has not yet caused local spread in society.
Infectious Disease Doctors Interpret XBB Variant Strain
Does the XBB strain mainly attack cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases? Will it lead to an increase in the number of people with diarrhea? On the evening of January 2, Wang Xinyu, deputy director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the National Research Center for Infectious Diseases and Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, gave a comprehensive explanation of the Omicron variant XBB in an interview. Reporter
: Compared with the currently popular BA.5.2 and BF.7 in China, will the new strain XBB be more susceptible to reinfection?
Wang Xinyu: If you have been infected with Omicron mutant strains such as BA.5.2 or BF.7, the chance of being infected with XBB again in the short term is very low. Reporter
: Current research points out that neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19 are completely ineffective against the new strain XBB. Is this true? What challenges does this pose to clinical treatment?
Wang Xinyu: The existing COVID-19 neutralizing antibody drugs that have been marketed at home and abroad have indeed been greatly reduced in their therapeutic effect on the new strain XBB, and have almost no therapeutic value. But for the choice of domestic clinicians, since such drugs are originally difficult to obtain, the impact is not too great. Reporter
: Recently, it has been spread in society that the new strain of XBB will mainly attack the intestines and cause diarrhea. Is this true? In your COVID-19 ward, are there more people with diarrhea among the infected people being treated?
Wang Xinyu: Some new coronavirus infected people do have gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea. Diarrhea is not too rare among symptoms other than the respiratory tract. Judging from foreign reports, XBB can also cause diarrhea, but there are no more common or serious signs. XBB still mainly invades the respiratory tract, so "XBB mainly attacks the intestines" is not true. Reporter
: There are also rumors that the new strain of XBB will attack the human brain. Is there any scientific basis for this? Some netizens say that "brain fog" will appear after COVID-19 infection. How to explain it?
Wang Xinyu: Among the rare complications of new coronavirus infection, encephalitis is also one of them, and the symptoms caused are relatively serious. But the probability of it happening is very low, so don’t be too nervous. As for "brain fog", it is just a "joking name" for people who feel prone to forgetting things or having low work efficiency after being infected with the new coronavirus. It is not a specific medical diagnosis and is generally not treated as a sequelae of the new coronavirus.
These are the things you need to know about the XBB strain
Comprehensive: People’s Daily , The Paper
Source: Beijing Radio and Television
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