The Omicron mutation has 3 to 6 times more re-infections than the Delta mutation, as Maria Theodoridou, professor and chair of the vaccination committee, pointed out during the standard briefing of the Ministry of Health on coronavirus.
The evolution of the pandemic constantly reserves upheavals for us, he said.
From 11/26, when the Omicron mutation was recognized as a strain of increased concern by the World Health Organization, a global alarm was created, as you all know.
The particularly worrying feature of the virus is the particularly worrying feature of the virus is the large number of mutations (fifty) of which 22 are located in the spike protein and 10 in its binding region to the cell receptor.
In comparison, the delta variant has nine mutations in the spike region.
According to mathematical models in the ECDC, it is predicted that the micron variant will prevail in the delta and in the coming months more than half of the cases will be due to it.
The three important issues that will shape the final effect of the Omicron strain are, for our country and worldwide, first, how contagious the virus is, second, how capable it is of bypassing antibodies and immune cells by disrupting the immune mechanism.
Third, how aggravating is it possibly in the clinical expression of the disease. That is, because of which hospital admissions or deaths increase.
As we know to date in relation to transmissibility, the Johannesburg National Institute has confirmed the rapid spread of the mutation.
Within a few days the number of cases rose from 3,500 to 8,000.
Based on the evolutionary biology of the University of Belgium, it is estimated that the virus can cause 3-6 times more infections than the delta mutation in the same period of time.
Regarding the effect of the virus, with Omicron variant on the mechanisms of immunity, to date we know that it in some way bypasses the immune system, in relation to other mutations and causes re-infections in people who have become ill.
There is a large retrospective analysis of epidemiological data from the beginning of the pandemic to the present day, but if one identifies, as the researchers did, the period during which the Omicron mutation is prevalent in South Africa, the number of re-infections appears to be more than three to more than fourfold.
In the case of vaccinated vaccines, the neutralizing antibodies do not appear to inactivate the virus by mutation.
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