The persistent COVID-19 epidemic in various parts of China has made us feel the lethality of virus infection variation. Whether in Chinese mainland or overseas, Omicron variant has become the dominant variety of communication system software, and gradually replaced Delta variant to be popular all over the world. As a single-stranded RNA virus infection, COVID-19 itself has strong variability, and the variability of this virus infection has been vividly reflected in the COVID-19 epidemic that continues to this day.
From the initial strain to the subsequent alpha strain, to the Delta strain that caused the epidemic in Europe and America last year and released the COVID-19 epidemic in all parts of China, and to the Omicron strain that has now become the core of the worldwide epidemic, COVID-19's ability to cope with mutations has pointed out a severe challenge for global disease prevention and control.
Recently, according to the report of the British Health and Safety Bureau, experts have closely detected a new mutant of Omicron gene-XE variant, which is a mixed variant of two Omicron strains. More than 600 cases of this mutation have been reported in Britain.
According to reports, this new mutant was first discovered in June 65438 +654381October+September 2022. Experts pay close attention to this genetic mutation to understand how it develops. As we all know, the British Health and Safety Bureau also said that there is no very sufficient evidence at this stage to show that spreading the virus strain will become an advantage.
If we want to understand this mutant, we must first understand what a recombinant variant is. If a person feels two or more kinds of COVID-19 at the same time, the virus infection is likely to produce recombination in the patient and be transformed into recombinant variants. This recombination represents the mixing of genetic information in patients, thus producing new recombinant variants. At present, experts have made scientific research on three recombinant variants found in Britain-XF, XD and XE variants. Among them, XD and XF are the BA. 1 subforms of Delta and Omicron, that is, the Delta Tartaron variant that was searched over-temperature a while ago, and the XE recombinant that attracted great attention this time is the BA.660 of Omicron.
There are currently 38 cases of XF mutation in the UK, but since the middle and late February, no new cases have been found and no community transmission has been found. However, at this stage, XD medical records have not been found in Britain, and 49 cases have been reported in the world database query, most of which are from France. This also confirms the objective fact that most recombinant variants will not have all the advantages for virus infection, but may decline rapidly.
Up to now, 637 cases of xe (recombinant of omicron ba.1and BA.2) have been diagnosed in Britain. According to the British Health and Safety Administration, there is not enough direct evidence to obtain the growth advantages and other characteristics of this variety at this stage, but some related studies show that Xe spreads very fast and needs to be 9.8% higher than BA.2, which has the strongest spreading ability at this stage. This shows that XE has the development potential of large-scale fashion. Therefore, it is also one of the recombinant mutants worthy of close attention.
In the variant technical communication of the British Health and Safety Agency, Omicron BA.2, which currently occupies the leading position in the UK, has also made a brand-new analysis. Judging from the possibility, at this stage, BA.2 has already become the absolute main force of transmission in Britain, accounting for more than 90% of bacterial infection cases, and the incidence rate in the southeast is the highest, reaching 96.4%. In other words, from the current situation, the Omicron BA.2 variant has become a dominant variant. At the same time, the continuous analysis in the report also emphasizes that there is no direct evidence to compare BA. 1.
Don't worry too much about mutant XE. For this recombinant mutant, we can regard it as arbitrary composition. In most cases, this component will naturally decline, but there is also a small probability that it will become the dominant strain of the next generation. Whether XE strain can replace Omicron BA.2 as the dominant strain with stronger transmission needs further data monitoring and time verification.
Correlation analysis shows that Omicron has become the dominant strain in the world epidemic, accounting for about 99.5% of all variations in the world. As far as virus infection is concerned, it also follows the law of survival of the fittest. Omicron strain, which has stronger spreading power, has crushed other enemies in the market competition with its brothers, and has become a highly competitive spreading strain at this stage.
According to the information in various fields at this stage, the hospitalization rate and critical rate caused by Omicron variant are lower than those caused by other COVID-19 variants, and the number of asymptomatic virus infections has greatly increased. However, in view of its strong transmission characteristics, the probability of continuous development of virus infection and the probability of secondary infection of some people, in this respect, although the infection is weakened, it is highly contagious. The promotion of Omicron will also pose a greater burden and challenge to global public health services, which is the key reason why most virus-infected people in COVID-19 have no symptoms in China recently, but they are still unable to release the pressure of epidemic prevention measures. Therefore, it is difficult for everyone to regard the Omicron strain of influenza as a small-scale influenza, and it is impossible to release the pressure epidemic prevention work at this stage.
How should we treat such a situation? Vaccination is a relatively suitable method to produce antibodies in vivo, but whether the vaccine booster should be re-injected with the increase of time, at present, the United States has gradually implemented the fourth booster among people over 50 years old. If a reasonable Omicron vaccine can be developed, the prevention and control of the epidemic will be more reasonable, but it is more difficult to develop a new strain of vaccine at this stage. However, virus infection always seems to be in the whole process of constant variation. If the speed of vaccine development can't keep up with the speed of virus infection and mutation, this scientific research requirement will be greatly affected.
In addition to vaccines, the urgent problem to be solved at this stage is whether special antiviral drugs can be produced, and the production capacity can keep up with the requirements, which is also a main way to resist the spread of viruses and harm health, especially special drugs that can reduce the incidence of severe diseases and the mortality rate of the elderly. It is expected that more and more cost-effective and practical anti-COVID-19 drugs with animation special effects will be available one after another.
As far as everyone is concerned, what we can do at this stage is to take the initiative to do safety protection, pay attention to hygiene, be diligent in natural ventilation, keep a certain social distance, and try to avoid unnecessary flow and gathering. In the case that the epidemic situation in COVID-19 has not been resisted, it is necessary to closely cooperate with the current epidemic prevention and control policies and do a good job in epidemic prevention and control.