Doctors Raise Alarm Over New Covid-19 Variant

Doctors Raise Alarm Over New Covid-19 Variant

Doctors Raise Alarm Over New Covid-19 Variant

Physicians are becoming concerned about an increase in respiratory illnesses across the nation, which some medical professionals believe to be related to a COVID-19 outbreak.

Kenya discovered the swine flu influenza virus in monitoring data from positive COVID samples gathered across the 14 counties in the Lake Region Economic Bloc. Additionally, Kenya identified a subset of the Omicron variant, called JN.1.

The JN.1 strain is categorized as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its ability to elude the immune system and spread more quickly than other circulating variations.

WHO has however said that current vaccines will continue to protect against severe disease and death from JN.1 and other circulating variants of the COVID-19 virus.

Expert in COVID-19 waves modeling Dr. Shem Otoi gave advice on how people should alter their behavior to reduce their risk of getting or spreading this variant.

“From February until now, the country has had a surge in the variant. There is also the H1N1 influenza. Imagine a combination of the influenza and the new variant,” he noted.

Symptoms

The symptoms exhibited by an infected person include coughing, fatigue, loss of breath and chest congestion. There is, however, a slight difference from other variants in diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

Vaccine

Dr. Otoi noted that the infection doesn’t have a vaccine. He, however, noted that doctors are working round the clock to develop a cure for all variants. He noted that a specific booster has been reported in other countries for protecting against the virus to a large extent.

“The XBB1.5 booster has been reported to have cross-protection among many variants,” the doctor pointed out.

Precaution

He advised getting checked as soon as possible if they were experiencing similar symptoms. He added that people should practice good hygiene and refrain from interacting with those exhibiting the symptoms in order to protect themselves.

“In other cases, wear a mask if possible,”

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there has been a significant percentage of JN1 prevalence worldwide, with France, the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom, and Sweden having the highest rates of infections.

The WHO said that the variation had a low prevalence when it was discovered in December 2023. However, it cautioned the public that there is not enough information available on the new variant.

“Low, as there aren’t any reports of this variation being linked to a higher disease severity as of yet. The reporting of new hospitalizations and ICU data with the WHO has significantly decreased; as a result, care should be taken when interpreting severe cases due to this decrease in reporting, even though there is regular coordination and data sharing amongst all WHO Regional colleagues, countries, and partners. A portion of a WHO statement stated, “Furthermore, more research would be required to evaluate the effect of this variation on clinical outcomes.

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