Are The New SARS-CoV-2 Variants Circulating In Europe More Neuropathogenic With A Modified Pathogenesis? Brain And Liver Issues On The Rise!
Source: Medical News - New Omicron Sub-Variants Sep 13, 2022 1 year, 7 months, 2 weeks, 7 hours, 39 minutes ago
Urgent investigations and research are warranted with regards to the variants circulating in Europe at the moment and whether there is any change in tropism and pathogenesis as there has been a rise of brain and liver related issues in many of the newly infected COVID-19 individuals.
Physicians and health authorities are concerned about new symptoms and conditions arising in newly infected SARS-CoV-2 individuals in many parts of Europe including Germany, France, Italy Hungary, Latvia and the United Kingdom.
Many of the newly infected are complaining of severe headaches, dizzy spells, neck pains and intracranial pressure. A small proportion are progressing on to develop virus associated encephalitis.
At the same time, many physicians in Hungary, Germany, France and Latvia are also reporting to Thailand
Medical News that they are finding that many of the otherwise young and healthy individuals with no history or previous comorbidities who have contracted COVID-19 recently are coming out with blood works indicating liver issues and, in some cases, conditions similar to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease!
The elevated levels of the liver enzymes alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) are showing up in many along with abnormal cholesterol profiles.
Such manifestations are making many physicians to question as to whether the new variants in circulation are displaying a modified pathogenesis and perhaps even a change of tropism.
With an increase in symptoms indicating neurological issues and brain issues, there is also speculation that the new variants could be even more neuropathogenic.
Also interesting is the observation that many suffer from the severe headaches for a long time even after testing negative and in many cases common NSAIDs or even painkiller are not helping to alleviate the condition.
It should be noted that there are at least more than 47 different subvariants of just the BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 variants have emerged in the last 60 days that are really concerning due to the mutations that are found on them and also the combination of these mutations.
The exact prevalence of these variants and their dominance in circulation is not really known accurately as many countries are no longer doing stringent genomic surveillance and are not adhering to regularly conducting sequencings and submitting them to online public sharing platforms.
Some of the assumptions that are being made as a result of data from platforms like GISAID and CoV-Spectrum might not really be the actual scenario.
Urgent efforts, detailed studies and more stringent genomic surveillance is warranted to truly understand what is brewing in Europe at the moment and even elsewhere.
Already in countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan where the new SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.3.7 with the K93E spike mutation is causing severe neurological issues in children, it is becoming clear that the newer emerging Omicron sub-variants are displaying a different tropism and also pathogenesis.
s-causing-critical-neurological-illness-in-children">https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/scientist-in-taiwan-report-that-a-new-sars-cov-2-ba-2-3-7-sub-variant-with-k97e-spike-mutation-is-causing-critical-neurological-illness-in-children
As it is already being seen that the newer Omicrons especially the BA.2 and BA.5 variants and even some of these subvariants like the BA.2.75 are evolving and mutating at an unprecedented rate, more funding and support should be given to researchers and virologists associated with these research and also deploy more researchers to study the pathogenesis of these new variants…..we are in reality still in the dark at the moment and the coming months are not really going to be good with fall and winter around the corner.
For the latest on the COVID-19 crisis in Europe, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
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