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This reveals a study in South Africa on the omicron variant

2021-12-07T03:28:44.295Z


The South African Medical Research Council published a study on the characteristics of infection with the omicron variant of the coronavirus.


Cases of omicron seem mild, according to authorities in Asia-Pacific 0:52

(CNN Spanish) -

The South African Medical Research Council published a study on the characteristics of infection by the omicron variant of the coronavirus in hospitalized patients in a complex in the Tshwane district of Pretoria.

Preliminary data highlight the value of vaccination.


Dr. Elmer Huerta explains the report's findings in this episode.

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Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your dose of information about the new coronavirus, information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.

Today we will see what is known regarding the severity of the infection that the new omicron variant is causing in South Africa.

The fear of health authorities for omicron

Undoubtedly, the appearance of the omicron variant in southern Africa has raised the alarms of the public health authorities of all countries in the world.

The great fear is that humanity will repeat everything it suffered with the previous variants, especially the original - called the wild variant of Wuhan - and the delta, which is currently the predominant variant on the planet.

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Let us remember that, although 80% of infections are mild or moderate and 15% are more severe, but can be controlled at home, the remaining 5% is the one that requires hospitalization and intensive care;

It is the one that has caused the most deaths, saturating and collapsing health systems at the same time.

It is in this context that it is very important to know the severity of the disease caused by this new omicron variant of SARS CoV2.

What will determine the impact of omicron in the pandemic?

As we heard in the November 29 episode, there are three characteristics of omicron that will determine its impact on the pandemic: first, knowing how much more infectious than the delta variant it is.

Second, know the severity of disease it causes.

And third, how effective it is in evading the antibodies that are produced in response to the antibodies produced by the natural disease or the vaccine.

The combination of these characteristics can be compared to a kind of puzzle, in which these three pieces are arranged to determine the impact of this new variant on the pandemic.

It should also be taken into account that - unlike the infectious waves caused by the previous variants - there is already an effective vaccine to prevent serious disease and death.

Accepting that —as it appears to be— the omicron variant is more contagious than the delta, it would be very important to know the severity of the infection caused by this variant, both in vaccinated people and in those who are not.

If the vast majority of infections are mild, then cases could be treated on an outpatient basis and collapse in healthcare systems would be avoided.

On the contrary, if the vast majority of cases that omicron produces are serious, including in people who have already passed the disease and in vaccinated people, then we could be in the presence of new waves of the disease in the world.

Hence, knowing the severity of the disease that causes omicron is essential to know what will happen with the pandemic.

A study sheds new data on omicron

In this sense, the South African Medical Research Council has just published the characteristics of the omicron variant infection in hospitalized patients at the Steve Biko hospital complex, located in the Tshwane district in Pretoria, the area most affected by the variant in the Gauteng region.

Recall that, having displaced the delta variant, almost all cases of covid-19 in that region are caused by the omicron variant.

First, Tshwane is reported to have been the global epicenter of the omicron outbreak, having a weekly number of cases that has risen exponentially over several weeks, going from just over 8,500 positives in the week of November 21-27, to 41,921 on December 3.

The report highlights a rapid increase in hospitalizations, describing the characteristics of 166 new hospitalizations between November 14 and 29, 2021, that is, during the first two weeks of the omicron outbreak in the region.

The main observation is that the majority of patients in hospital wards due to covid-19 have not been dependent on oxygen, revealing that the diagnosis of covid-19 was an incidental finding in patients who were admitted to the hospital for any other medical reason, either surgical or obstetric.

An important observation is that the age of the 166 hospitalized patients is lower than that observed before the arrival of omicron.

And that there were only two patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit in the two weeks of observation of the report, which would be a very stark indication that the outbreak does not cause severe illness.

The authors coincide in stating that it is still too early to evaluate the number of deaths as an indicator of the severity of the infection.

The report also offers a quick analysis of 42 cases of COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized on December 2, and revealed that only 9 of them (or 21%) used oxygen due to pneumonia.

The rest either did not have respiratory symptoms and, therefore, did not need oxygen, or some used oxygen but for reasons that had nothing to do with covid-19.

The importance of vaccination against covid-19

The report also describes the vaccination status of the 38 adults in the group of 42 patients hospitalized on December 2.

Of this group, 24 of the 38 (or 63%) were not vaccinated, 6 (or 16%) were vaccinated, and the vaccination status of the other 8 was unknown.

In that sense, of the 9 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and permanent oxygen, eight were not vaccinated.

The rest was a boy.

These preliminary data undoubtedly highlight the value of vaccination.

In summary, and we quote some of the conclusions of the report, the first impression of the analysis of the 166 patients admitted since the omicron variant appeared, and of the data of 42 patients currently in the covid-19 wards in Tshwane, is that the majority of hospital admissions are for diagnoses not related to COVID-19 and that were incidentally diagnosed with COVID-19, a measure promoted by the hospital's policy that requires molecular tests to be carried out on all patients who require admission to the hospital.

The report reports that this unusual pattern is also occurring in other hospitals in Gauteng province.

For example, on December 3, Helen Joseph Hospital had 37 patients in wards for covid-19, 31 of whom (83%) were not on oxygen.

Similarly, out of 80 COVID-19 patients at Dr. George Mukhari Academic Hospital, 81% did not need oxygen.

It is concluded that the exponential increase in covid-19 cases in Tshwane does not seem to be associated with a parallel increase in the rate of hospitalizations for severe covid-19, and that, due to the low need for oxygen of hospitalized patients, the majority of those admitted are not affected by covid-19 pneumonia.

The authors hypothesize that these observations are due to a positive effect of vaccination, since 57% of people over 50 years of age have been vaccinated in the province compared to 34% in the 18 to 49 group years.

They also say that due to the high proportion of adult patients in whom an incidental diagnosis of covid-19 has been made, and the greater number of hospitalizations due to covid-19 in children aged 0 to 9 years, it is possible that there are more infections in the community compared to previous waves, but which, for some reason, are not causing serious illness.

We agree with the final conclusion that more time is needed to fully answer the questions about the severity of the covid-19 caused by the new omicron variant, but we hope that this trend will continue, as it could indicate a transition to the endemic phase of the disease.

Do you have questions about covid-19?

Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes.

You can find me at @Drhuerta.

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And for the most up-to-date information, you can always head to CNNEspanol.com.

Thank you for your time.

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Source: cnnespanol

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