The Omicron variant is prevalent all over the world but now another version is appearing, the 3. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Omicron has long since taken over the Delta.
The sub-variant fully named Omicron BA.3 was found in Israel. It is a cross of the sub-variants BA.1 and BA.2, very similar to each other and at the moment it is not yet possible to define the aggressiveness profile of the new mutation.
At the moment, in our country, over 95% of infections are due to Omicron 2 . Symptoms
The most common symptoms reported by those infected with the Omicron variant and its sub-variants are: headache , cold or runny nose, fatigue , but also fever or sore throat . With Omicron, compared to other strains of the virus, reports of loss of smell and taste appear less frequent. As for the Omicron 3 sub-variant, very similar to the two and still not very present in Italy, the symptoms do not seem to differ much. In the same way, the days of incubation remain more or less always five . The therapies
Therapies can now be made using antiviral drugs, which have a broad spectrum of action against coronaviruses, and monoclonal antibodies . These drugs are generally given at the first onset of symptoms and are administered in a hospital setting.
The real problem, points out the president of the Italian Society of Virology Arnaldo Caruso, is that “ some monoclonals that worked well for Omicron 1 seem not to be effective for Omicron 2 . This is a great difficulty encountered in the treatment of fragile patients at a time when this sub-variant tends to dominate the scene ”.
For patients with paucisymptomatic and without respiratory difficulties, the ministerial protocol on home care based on “vigilant waiting”, ie constant monitoring of vital parameters and clinical conditions and with the possible use of drugs for symptomatic treatments, remains valid. The cases of reinfection
“Because of its mutations – explains Casruso – the spike protein of Omicron is substantially different from that of the previous variants. Therefore it is not surprising that the immune system, even if instructed by vaccination or by a previous infection with other variants, finds it difficult to recognize the Omicron spike, and is not always able to stop the infection. This explains the numerous cases of reinfection that we report today. “Fourth dose
The president of the Italian Virology Society underlines that “At this moment, making a fourth dose of anti-Covid vaccine with an outdated Omicron formulation is absurd from a theoretical point of view”. Caruso said he was amazed by the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, the US government body that gave the go ahead to administer a fourth dose of Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines for the over 50s
. “With these vaccines – recalls Caruso , professor of microbiology and clinical microbiology at the University of Brescia and director of the microbiology laboratory of the Asst Spedali Civili – it is now possible to quickly update the formulation by adapting it to the new circulating viral variants. This is what we do every year against the flu. Instead, we still haven’t been able to do it for Covid-19. I wonder if we should attribute it to a moment of difficulty in the pharmaceutical industry or, if we think badly, if we have to imagine that there are stocks in storage to be disposed of. ” March 31, the state of emergency ends
” The end of the state of emergency does not mean say an end to the pandemic – concludes Caruso -. At this stage the priority is to protect fragile patients “.
