Covid XEC, a new strain spreading in Europe, could become the dominant variant of the virus this fall. And until it appears in Romania it is only a matter of days, Dr. Alexandru Coman, epidemiologist at the Heart Institute in Cluj-Napoca and president of the Association for the Prevention and Control of Infections, told “Adevărul”. The reason? The new strain is highly contagious.
Humanity has already learned to live with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Photo source: archive
A hybrid of the Omicron subvariants, Covid XEC first appeared in Germany and was later detected in the UK, Denmark, France, Ireland, Sweden, Italy and Spain. “Soon, we will hear about him in Romania too”warned epidemiologist Alexandru Coman. “And it’s normal for it to be like that, because the virus undergoes mutations. We will have new variants all the time, like the common flu. The reasons are easy to understand. Mobility is increasing, people travel more and more, some come to Romania, others leave. We’re not talking about the winter holidays when they go on vacation,” explained the specialist.
Covid XEC, a contagious but not very aggressive variant
Dr. Alexandru Coman stated that it is a matter of days until the new strain will reach us. “Unless it actually arrived and we still haven’t found out. And we don’t know because the symptoms are mild and people don’t get tested anymore and don’t go to the doctor anymore.”
Dr. Adrian Marinescu, infectious disease doctor and medical director of the “Matei Balș” Institute in Bucharest explained that, indeed, people are no longer tested. “When they have symptoms just like a cold, which lasts two or three days, it’s almost hard to believe that people will go to the family doctor or the hospital to get tested, when things will resolve themselves . This has also happened with previous viral variants. When you don’t have complications, you don’t have a bad general condition and you don’t go to the doctor, obviously you won’t do the test, in most cases”.
But the doctor said that, for now, this new strain should not give us cause for concern. “In the end, it is normal that after the pandemic you entered this stage of living with the virus. And we’re going to have different viral variants, because of course, the virus undergoes mutations at any moment. The problem we might have is when the cold season comes, the flu season, and we will have viruses and flu and various other respiratory infections at the same time. And we will also have SARS-Cocv-2 infection,” said the medical director of the “Matei Balș” Institute.
We don’t have a vaccine, but we do have some herd immunity
What is there to do? How can we protect ourselves, though? Because there are people who would like to get vaccinated against this new strain, but they don’t have what to do. “Indeed, there is no vaccine for this strain in Romania. But as with the flu, there is some coverage, to a greater or lesser extent. Let me give you an example: in the case of influenza, the effectiveness of the vaccine is 80-90%. Obviously, if it is intended for the currently circulating strain. If not, the efficiency is lower. The anti-Covid vaccine works on the same principle. On the other hand, let’s not forget that we either got vaccinated in the past years, or went through the disease, with some remaining immunity left. That’s why hospitals are no longer full of patients. Because the receptivity of the population is much increased”, continued Dr. Coman.
Therefore, the classic protective measures, the hygiene rules we all know, remain valid. “The most important thing, in my opinion, is to self-isolate if we are sick. Then, if we have a sick child, he should stay at home. Once he is introduced into the community, at the nursery, kindergarten or school, he can transmit the disease to other children. They then get home and make their family sick. A child with a fever should avoid socializing for two to five days until the fever passes. In turn, sick adults should not miss work. And if they go, it is recommended that they wear a protective mask. Basically, we should try to do our best not to make those around us sick. And if you go to the store to buy bread, you have to wear a mask,” the specialist doctor also explained.
We asked Dr. Coman what we should be concerned about this season: the common flu or the new Covid strain. The answer was very clear: “I would be concerned about the flu, because I already have the flu vaccine in the pharmacy. I am concerned with the problem for which I have a solution. If I don’t have a solution, I don’t beat my head too hard with it. We will have to learn to live with this virus among us. I have already learned. Because we will not get rid of it, neither now nor in the future. We have to learn to live with the microbes around us. I never got rid of the flu. I did not get rid of tuberculosis. I didn’t get rid of HIV. We can only control them and keep them in check”.
Bird flu, the next pandemic?
As for the future pandemic that could hit humanity at some point, epidemiologist Alexandru Coman considers bird flu to be a potential danger. “The risk was there all along. We didn’t perceive it that way, but it existed. Since around 2009 – 2010, I have been concerned about the risk of outbreaks of avian influenza viruses. And I believe even now that this danger still exists. As SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 actually arose from animals, one from camels, one from bats. Zoonoses are diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans. And respiratory zoonoses, many of them, come from Asia because there people have more direct contact with animals. If you go to an animal fair or a bird market, you will see that 150 birds are crammed into a cage. And the birds are bought alive, the trade in live animals is very intense there”.
The bottom line? It is only a matter of time before a virus could be transmitted from animal to human. And then, it’s just a matter of time before the virus mutates and becomes transmissible between humans. “I recently heard that in America there is a patient with bird flu but without having come into contact with any animal. In this patient’s case there was no intermediate host”the specialist also specified.
