One of the big problems related to covid is the difficulty in distinguishing the symptoms from those accompanying the flu or cold. Some of them were more spectacular with past variants, such as loss of taste or smell, which appeared and disappeared from the list of symptoms with the development of the disease.
The fact is that infections have increased with the prevalence of BA.5, and that the presence of BQ.1 and XBB infections is increasing day by day. is around mutations more contagious than their predecessors; the percentage is set to 30% more, in the case of BQ.1 and XBB, which are already present in 65 countries. As for the incidence, it increased from 800 cases per 100,000 inhabitants at the beginning of October to 1,900 at the end of last month.
Since the vaccination campaign is in progress, we must be especially careful with those symptoms that may indicate a possible infection; actually, three of which appear to be strongly associated with the most recently identified omicron lineages, according to immunologist and professor Alfred Corello: loss of appetite, hoarseness and tachycardia.
None of the three symptoms were common with previous variants of the Omicron, nor with its predecessors of other denominations. Symptoms such as nasal congestion, dry cough, muscle aches, headaches and fever are shared with other conditions.
The health authorities also insist on the recommendation to undertake joint vaccination against covid and flu, especially people over 60 and those younger than that age who have chronic diseases. The goal, although these new mutations may escape the full protection of the vaccine, is that the development of the disease is milder, if infection finally occurs.