A new old "friend"

"Pirola" is the unofficial name of the strain of COVID-19 BA.2.86. It's a subspecies of "omicron." The first cases of infection with the new strain were detected in August in France. Now there are sick people in more than 10 countries including the UK, USA, Denmark, Israel, Switzerland and others.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "pirola" has more than 30 mutations, which is quite a lot, so it manages to bypass antibodies obtained after vaccination or infection with other strains. Thus, "pirola" is more contagious than "omicron", which means that we should expect a large number of people getting sick. However, experts do not expect a large-scale outbreak or severe consequences.

Symptoms

There is no evidence that this virus subspecies causes a more severe course of illness than its predecessors. The symptoms caused by "pirola" resemble those of a common acute respiratory infection:

• Temperature of about 100 degrees F
• Shortness of breath, throat congestion
• Coughing, runny nose, sneezing
• Headache, muscle and chest pain, general weakness
• Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea may occur

Experts at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control assure that the COVID-19 tests and vaccines created under "omicron" will be effective for the new strain as well.

How it is treated

According to the latest recommendations, doctors prescribe symptomatic treatment as well as modern antiviral drugs. The principal changes have affected the prescription of antibiotics: if at the beginning of the pandemic they were prescribed to everyone en masse, today, without a confirmed bacterial infection, they are not necessary, and possibly even dangerous. If the patient has a moderate to severe course of the disease and there is a risk of thrombosis, he or she will be prescribed anticoagulants (drugs that reduce the risk of blood clots) and antiaggregants (drugs that reduce the ability of platelets to stick together).

Stay calm

The last severely tolerated strain of COVID-19 was the “delta” strain. After it, the era of "omicron" began, which was considered highly contagious but no more dangerous than the common cold. In general, chances are high that you will not be able to distinguish COVID-19 symptoms from those of an acute respiratory infection this year. Like most viruses, COVID-19 won't go anywhere, but it will gradually become a seasonal respiratory illness unless a dangerous new strain emerges.

11 December 2023