Summary: Omikon's new subtype to the beauty epidemic up again

Xinhua News Agency, Los Angeles, July 12th. Review: Omikon's new subtype of the beauty epidemic

Xinhua News Agency reporter Tan Jingjing

Recently, the newly crown virus Omikon strain new subtype BA.5 and BA.4 accelerated the spread in the United States, setting off a new wave of infection. U.S. experts said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that these two new subtypes are more contagious than previous strains, stronger immune escape, and bring huge challenges to the prevention and control of the epidemic. The current prevention and control measures in the United States may be facing a more severe situation this summer and autumn.

The latest data from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that BA.5 has become a strain that dominates the United States. As of the week of July 2, cases caused by BA.5 accounted for about 54%of the total number of confirmed cases in the United States, and BA.4 accounted for about 17%. Since mid -May, the number of infection cases caused by these two new subtypes has continued to rise.

At the University of Eva at the University of Aiwa, Steinley Permann, a professor of microbiology and immunology, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the duplicate infection rate caused by the new subtype was on the rise, and the proportion of BA.5 infection cases will continue to increase.

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters, Professor Zhang Zuqiao, director of the Department of Popular Diseases, Los Angeles School of Public Health, the University of California, said that the BA.5 new subtype has high contagious, short lacked period, fast transmission speed, and high proportion of asymptomatic infections. Features, as the antibody level decreases after a period of vaccination for a period of time, the breakthrough infection rate of this virus will be higher.

Zhang Zuofeng said that in vitro experiments show that the affinity of BA.5 and lung cells is relatively high. However, it lacks direct evidence of crowd after being infected with the human body and the significant increase in severe diseases and mortality. At present, the observation has not been found that BA.5 is higher than the previous BA.2 and BA.1 subtypes.

According to the latest data of the US Centers for Disease Control, the average daily increase in the United States has recently increased about 106,000 cases, with an average increase of about 300 cases of death, and an average increase in hospitalization of 5,100 cases. However, experts said that the number of actual cases in the United States may be much higher than official statistics, because some mild groups are no longer testing, and some people are detected at home and do not report the results.

Eric Toppol, a geneticist at the Syllps Institute in the United States, believes that the number of newly confirmed cases in the United States may be as high as 1 million. He said that BA.5 has evolved sharply from its "predecessor" subtype, and has obtained a strong cell infection. In addition, its ability to escape from the immunity obtained from vaccines and previous infections is very worrying. Essence

Zhang Zuofeng said that the effective prevention and control measures for BA.5 include: first, vaccination, which can reduce severe illnesses and mortality; second, early antiviral therapy, drugs that treat new crown infections can prevent hospitalization and severe illness; third, wearing masks ; Fourth, improve diet, exercise, improve personal nutritional conditions, and enhance the immune system.

The Washington Post reported that when the BA.5 strikes, many U.S. epidemic prevention and control measures have long been canceled, and the flight travel has basically returned to the level before the epidemic. These are the opportunities for the virus.

Ziad Ali, an associate professor at the University of Washington University in San Louis, said that there are no public health measures to prevent new crown infections at all. "The risk is there, it is obvious, but we have relaxed their vigilance."

Jeffrey Sax, the director of the Corporation of Columbia University, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the epidemic was earlier and there are still many uncertainty. International cooperation of resistance should be strengthened to ensure that countries can take appropriate prevention and control measures, and obtain necessary diagnostic equipment, drugs, vaccines, etc.

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