A health expert said that COVID-19 can be infected again within 4 weeks of the first infection due to the new Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 strains.
According to a report by Katie Anthony and Andrea Michaelson published in the "businessinsider" website, Omicron "PA5" has become the dominant strain of the Corona virus in the United States, and one expert described it as "the worst version of the virus we've seen."
Omicron's PA5 strain is 4 times more resistant to antibodies compared to other variants and can reinfect people in just weeks.
Corona virus infection again
It was previously thought that people who had been vaccinated, received antibody treatments or developed a natural immunity to the virus had a lower risk of contracting COVID-19, at least in the months following exposure.
But Andrew Robertson, Western Australia's chief health officer, told News.com.au he was seeing people re-infected with the coronavirus within weeks.
"What we are seeing is an increase in the number of people infected with PA2, and then they are infected after 4 weeks ... and this is almost certainly either PA4 or BA5," he said.
Dr. David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Insider that re-infection with "PA5" and "PA4" strains is usually less severe compared to early infection with Covid-19. With some resistance to the antibodies, the immune system learns to respond to it without making the body ruin it.
evading covid-19 vaccines
Like previous sub-variants of Omicron, PA5 and PA4 are known to have mutations that allow them to evade protection against the virus from COVID-19 vaccines or previous infections.
A recent study from Columbia University - not peer-reviewed (i.e. not yet reviewed by other researchers and scientists) - found that recent PA4 and PA5 sub-variants were at least 4 times more resistant to protection against the virus than previous variants. in the Omicron dynasty.
The researchers, led by Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, took antibodies from people who had received at least 3 doses of the mRNA vaccine or had two injections and were infected with Omicron.
The researchers monitored to see how these antibodies performed against the omicron sub-variants.
The greatest power is re-infection
“The great power of PA4 and PA5 is re-infection,” Peter Chen Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego, described PA5 as "the worst version of viruses we've seen" because of its ability to evade immunity and increase transmissibility.
The long-term health consequences of COVID-19
On the other hand, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said that the long-term health consequences that occur for some after infection with the Corona virus are not only a problem for those infected, but also for the health sector and society in general, as well as for the labor market.
"We do not have the capacity to provide care for many cases," Lauterbach said in statements to the German newspaper "Zeit". The problems associated with infection with the so-called "long-term Covid".
"This will affect the labor market as well, because unfortunately many will not return to their old competence after that," he added.
OMICRON Vaccine
The German minister expressed his hope to obtain a vaccine that would help against infection with the Omicron strain, and said, "Because it is hoped that this vaccine will not only protect against a dangerous disease course, but also protect against infection and thus from a long-term Covid."
And the German Minister of Health had written on his Twitter account that every infection with the emerging corona virus carries a long-term risk of infection with Covid.
According to an assessment of the data of insured persons with a German health insurance company published last Wednesday, 1% of workers who contracted the Corona virus in 2020 took sick leave in 2021 based on their diagnosis of long-term Covid.