Recently
Omicron New variant of XBB strain
has attracted attention from all parties
So far
The strain discovered in China
are still dominated by BF.7 and BA.5.2
The XBB strain discovered in Shanghai
has only been detected in a very small number of people entering quarantine
has not yet caused local spread in society
Does the XBB strain mainly attack cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases? Will
lead to an increase in people with diarrhea?
Is it useful to store montmorillonite powder and norfloxacin?
Facing the future, how should we prevent it?
Shanghai: No local transmission has been found
Recently, for citizens in Europe and the United States, Concerned about the introduction of regional strains BQ.1 and XBB, Yuan Zheng'an, a member of the expert group of the Shanghai Epidemic Prevention and Control Leading Group, said that the Omicron BQ.1 and XBB strains currently found in Shanghai have only been detected in a very small number of people entering quarantine and have not yet caused local spread in society.
Ling Yun, deputy director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, said that the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, as the designated hospital for the treatment of inbound confirmed cases in Shanghai, implements strict closed-loop management of imported cases as required, and will be released from isolation after meeting discharge standards. Currently, no local transmission of imported strains has been found.
XBB.1.5 may become the main strain in the world
country Wang Xinyu, deputy director of the Infectious Disease Research Center and the Department of Infectious Diseases of Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, said that XBB is a sub-variant of Omicron. It was first discovered in India in August 2022 and was first named by scientists in September. It is considered to be a "recombination" of two different Omicron sub-variants BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 that appeared earlier in 2021. XBB has further evolved into XBB.1 and XBB.1.5, of which the latter is a variant strain that is currently rising rapidly in some European and American countries and has become dominant in some countries, but it seems that the symptoms caused by it are not particularly severe than other variants.
According to reports, domestic and foreign experts predict that XBB.1.5 will become the main strain in the world in a short period of time and requires close attention. Another important reason is that the human ACE2 binding affinity of XBB.1.5 is almost equal to that of BA.2.75, which may cause XBB.1.5 to acquire more mutations like BA.2.75 in the future. However, XBB.1.5 currently has little pressure on immunity and will not evolve quickly.
January 1, 2023, Nanjing Road Commercial Pedestrian Street, Shanghai ↑
"XBB mainly attacks the intestines" is not true
Recently, it has been spread in society that the new strain XBB mainly attacks the intestines and causes diarrhea. Is this true?
Wang Xinyu said that new coronavirus infected people do have gastrointestinal symptoms, including vomiting and diarrhea. Diarrhea is not too rare among symptoms other than the respiratory tract. According to 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.
Regarding rumors that the new strain XBB will attack the human brain, Wang Xinyu said that encephalitis is also one of the rare complications of new coronavirus infection, 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.What is the pathogenicity of
XBB.1.5?
According to media reports, previously, data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on December 30, 2022 Eastern Time showed that an estimated 40.5% of new coronavirus infection cases in the United States that week were caused by the XBB.1.5 strain. Scientists also said that due to its extremely high "immune evasion" ability, XBB.1.5 has replaced BQ.1.1 and BQ.1 as the most prevalent strain in the United States.
Research shows that the immune evasion ability of XBB.1.5 is equivalent to that of XBB.1, but the key mutation F486P gives it a higher binding affinity for the human ACE2 receptor - ACE2 can be regarded as the "gate" for the new coronavirus to enter human cells, which means that XBB.1.5 is more likely to infect the human body.
In this regard, Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong and an expert in virology, said that while F486P has slightly increased its ability to bind to the ACE2 receptor, its immune evasion ability has also been slightly weakened. This once again shows that replicating infection and immune escape are linked. The current change is genetic drift , which is a phenomenon where accidental changes cause the next generation's gene frequency to be different from that of this generation. In fact, it does not deviate too far from the baseline.
Jin Dongyan said that XBB.1.5 has not caused significant changes in the number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States. There is no need to worry too much about its pathogenicity and the risk of secondary infection . "Except for the immune evasion ability being enhanced to a certain extent, the changes in other aspects are relatively small," he said.
Is it necessary to stock up on montmorillonite powder?
Li Tong, chief physician of the Department of Respiratory and Infectious Diseases at Beijing You'an Hospital, once told reporters: "Montmorillonite powder is a drug for treating diarrhea. Some people infected with the new coronavirus do have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, which usually resolve on their own in 1 to 3 days. It has not been found that XBB·1.5 is more likely to invade the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems and digestive system to treat respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal infection drugs can be prepared appropriately, but there is no need to stock up in large quantities. ”
Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Gastroenterology, Guangdong Provincial People’s HospitalLiao Shanying said that if diarrhea occurs after COVID-19 infection, there are many reasons. The new coronavirus itself will infect the gastrointestinal mucosa, causing viral enteritis , resulting in diarrhea. In addition, intestinal flora imbalance and the patient's own underlying diseases may cause or aggravate diarrhea. The course of viral infectious diarrhea is self-limiting and generally does not exceed 1 week.
"The main function of montmorillonite powder is to treat the symptoms of diarrhea, and it is not a drug to treat viruses." Cui Song, chief physician of Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told reporters. "Everyone may be panic-buying montmorillonite powder now, but in fact, most antidiarrheal drugs can achieve similar functions to montmorillonite powder. There is no need to focus on montmorillonite powder."
After recovery, will I be infected with XBB again?
Li Tong, chief physician of the Department of Respiratory and Infectious Diseases at Beijing You'an Hospital, once said that the immune evasion ability of the current XBB strain has been enhanced, which is different from the BA.5 popular in my country. After a period of time after infection with BA.5, the level of protection decreases. When encountering a strain with strong immune evasion ability, the risk of reinfection will increase.
However, reinfection mainly occurs in some people with low immunity, people with normal immune function The risk of reinfection in a short period of time is relatively small, and the symptoms after infection are usually milder than the first time.
How to face the changing epidemic strains?
Wang Xinyu said that as long as the pandemic does not end, the epidemic strains of the new coronavirus will continue to change around the world, and new mutant strains will definitely replace the old mutant strains and become the most popular virus strains. This is a rule, and everyone does not need to be too anxious.
As public health and clinical medical workers, we must remain vigilant at all times, continue to monitor local epidemic strains, and at the same time strengthen the monitoring of clinical symptoms of infected people. If the number of infections caused by new mutant strains is found to increase significantly again, accompanied by increased pathogenicity and an increase in fatality rates, non-drug intervention measures may need to be strengthened again to avoid another wave of medical peaks. In fact, many countries in the world have dynamically adjusted prevention and control measures in this way.
Source | CCTV Network Comprehensive The Paper News, Jimu News, CCTV News, China News Network
