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The Omikron variant, although it spreads much faster than Delta, causes a much milder course of the disease. Symptoms of infection with this variant may resemble a cold. However, there are some symptoms that do not appear with a cold. The infectious diseases doctor talks about them.
- Symptoms of Omikron infection are not specific. They are similar to those found with Delta or Alpha infections
- They can also resemble the symptoms of fall / winter infections
- These include a cough, a sore throat or a runny nose
- However, there are several conditions that distinguish Omikron from the common cold
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Omicron and colds – how to distinguish symptoms?
The symptoms of coronavirus infection are very similar to those of seasonal infections, such as the flu or a cold. It is primarily a runny nose, cough, headaches and muscle aches. Therefore, in the fall and winter, diagnosis without testing for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be difficult.
Currently, in many countries, although not yet in Poland, the Omikron variant is becoming dominant. Its symptoms are not very different from those accompanying infections in Alpha or Delta.
“It’s mostly fever, chills, headache, sore throat, and as the disease progresses, comes coughing, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing,” said Dr. Hai Shao, an infectious disease physician at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center in San Diego. Shao adds that the symptoms of Ominkron infection are also similar to the common cold, but there are three that do not occur with a cold.
– A unique feature of COVID-19 is loss of smell and tastethat you won’t experience with the virus that causes the common cold, Dr. Shao told CBS. – The second thing is that a cold is usually not associated with it high fever ani severe headachewhich is dominant with Omikron – adds the contagious.
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“ So if you have these symptoms, consider that you probably have COVID-19, not a cold, ” emphasizes the doctor.
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Omikron variant and colds – why are they similar?
Scientists recently discovered why the common cold and the Omikron variant, which is milder than Delta, have similar symptoms. The omicron has an exceptionally large number of mutations, greater than any previously detected variant. He probably got one of them by taking a piece of genetic material from a virus that causes a cold.
This genetic sequence is not present in any previous version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but is present in many viruses that cause seasonal infections.
“Thanks to this change, the Omikron looks” more human “, which may allow it to avoid our immune system reactions, explains immunologist and virologist Venky Soundararajan. This may make it easier for the virus to spread, but it causes a milder or asymptomatic course of the disease.
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Previous research has shown that cells in the lungs and digestive system may contain SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronaviruses simultaneously. Such co-infection creates space for viral recombination, a process in which two different viruses in the same human cell create new copies that bear the genetic material of both “parents”.
This new mutation could occur for the first time in a person infected with both pathogens. The same genetic sequence appears in one of the coronaviruses that causes colds in humans (HCoV-229E) and in the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, Soundararajan says.
South Africa, where Omikron was first identified, has the highest HIV infection rate in the world. HIV is an acquired immunodeficiency virus that increases a person’s susceptibility to infections with common cold viruses and other pathogens. “There are many people in this part of the world who may have recombined that added this set of genes to the Omicron,” explains Soundararajan.
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