Learn about the new centaur mutant from Omicron Corona

What is the new centaur mutant of the Omicron Corona strain?

Why do scientists worry?

And how did the infection with Corona affect German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbock?

Does infection with corona increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease?

mutated centaur

Virologists have expressed concerns about the emergence of another fast-spreading species of Omicron, dubbed Centaur, that is spreading rapidly in India and has already reached the UK, according to a report in The Guardian.

The BA.2.75 variant, nicknamed the Centaurus mutant, was first discovered in India in early May.

Cases in the UK have since risen sharply, appearing to be faster than those of the highly transmissible BA.5 variant, which is also found in India and is rapidly replacing the prevalent BA. Previously in many countries.

The centaur has also since been discovered in about 10 other countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Germany and Canada.

On July 7, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) classified the centaur mutant as a "controlled variant", which means that there are some indications that it could be more transmissible or associated with a more serious disease, but the evidence for It is weak or not yet evaluated.

Huge number of extra mutations

The World Health Organization is also closely monitoring the centaur, although its chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, said there were not enough samples yet to assess its severity.

In addition to its apparent rapid growth and wide geographical spread, virologists have been alerted to a large number of additional mutations contained in the centaur mutant strain, compared to the BA.2 strain from which it may have evolved.

"This could mean it has an opportunity to develop an advantage over an already successful virus strain," said Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds.

"It's not so much about micromutations, but the number/group," said Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, who was the first to identify Omicron as a potential concern in November 2021.

The effect of these many mutations appearing together is important, as the sum of the parts can be worse than the single parts.

Peacock added that even if the mutant has not been released in other countries, its growth in India suggests it could potentially cause a problem there.

"At this time last year, many were convinced that Delta represented the evolutionary culmination of the virus, but the emergence of Omicron and the huge increase in variance and antibody evasion is a sign that we, as a population, cannot follow a flu-like plan to keep pace with viral evolution," Griffin continued.

The German Foreign Minister is an example of the continuing effects of Corona

"She really knocked me down despite having been vaccinated 4 times... and so far I can't climb more than two floors on my feet," German Foreign Minister Annallina Birbock described her condition after contracting the Corona virus a month ago, according to a report in Deutsche Welle.

The minister revealed that she is still suffering from the repercussions of her infection with the Corona virus, even after a month has passed.

In statements to "Stern" magazine on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the minister said, "You have already thrown me to the ground despite taking the vaccination 4 times, and I have been lying down for two weeks, and so far I cannot climb more than two floors on my feet."

Birbock, 41, added: "I can only call for the wearing of a muzzle when necessary, and the test, the test, the test."

Birbock had taken a test to detect corona at the beginning of last June during a visit to Pakistan, and the result was positive, and she also showed clear symptoms of influenza.

As a result, she canceled her appointments in Pakistan and canceled travel to the other two stops on her tour, as she intended to go to Greece and Turkey, and returned to Berlin, adhering to the conditions of isolation.

Does infection with corona increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease?

A recent Danish study found that the risk of Alzheimer's disease increases in the year after infection with the Corona virus, but German experts believe that the role of Covid-19 here is to show symptoms of an existing disease before infection with the virus.

According to the study, infection with the Corona virus significantly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the 12 months following the disease, according to what a report by Deutsche Welle quoted several German media outlets, including the website of the newspaper “Die Welt”.

Compared to those without corona, researchers found that the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease increased more than 3.5 times in people with the virus, as Pardis Zrifkar and her team wrote in the journal Frontiers in Neurology.

However, two experts from Germany confirmed that they believed that the corona infection did not cause Alzheimer's disease, but only revealed symptoms of an existing disease.

Pardis Zrivkar's team from Copenhagen University Hospital evaluated Danish health data, comparing the number of times that specific neurodegenerative diseases occurred in infected and non-infected people with corona infection over a one-year period.

The team found a relationship similar to that between corona and Alzheimer's disease, and between corona and both Parkinson's and cerebral infarction.

However, the researchers stress that the impact of most of the diseases studied - including Alzheimer's disease - was no greater than that of influenza or bacterial pneumonia.

It has long been known that such respiratory diseases trigger inflammatory reactions that can have a detrimental effect on neurons in the brain, Anja Schneider, a research group leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, explained to the German news agency DPA. .

Corona’s inflammatory reaction accelerates nerve cell damage

The increased risk may be due to the fact that the inflammatory reaction caused by corona accelerates the damage of nerve cells, and the symptoms of these neurological diseases become more likely to appear.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the German Neurological Society (DGN) Peter Berlett told the German news agency that one cannot conclude from the study that a person with corona will be more likely to develop Alzheimer's, but it has only been proven that the symptoms are diagnosed frequently after infection, according to perlite.

The German doctor refers to external factors, such as losing the environment to which the patient is accustomed due to having to stay in the hospital, which can lead to the appearance of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease that existed before infection with corona.