[팜뉴스=김응민 기자] In March and April, there were hundreds of thousands of daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Korea, and the ‘omicron mutation’ took a direct hit. At the time, experts explained the explosion of confirmed cases by analyzing that the Omicron mutation has a lower fatality rate than the existing virus, but is highly contagious.
However, recent research results different from the previous analysis have been published and are attracting attention. It is said that the Omicron mutant virus has a higher rate of ‘asymptomatic’ than the existing Corona 19 virus, and as a result, there is a possibility that the number of confirmed cases of Corona 19 worldwide has exploded.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Infectious Diseases recently published ‘Awareness of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Infection Among Adults With Recent COVID-19 Seropositivity’Published a paper titled
The study enrolled 210 adult staff and patients enrolled in the Los Angeles County Medical Center, California, USA, who were serologically infected with the omicron mutation. Their median age was 51 years, and the gender ratio was 65% female (n=136) and 35% male (n=74).
Looking at the classification according to vaccination, 82% (n=173) of those who received up to the 3rd dose were in detail ▲0 6% (n=13) ▲1 3% (n=6) ▲2nd 9 % (n=18) ▲3 times 67% (n=141) ▲4 times 32% (n=15). In addition, 37% of the participants were medical workers.
As a result of an analysis conducted by the research team on participants confirmed with COVID-19 Omicron, 118 out of a total of 210 responded that they were unaware that they were infected with the coronavirus. In other words, more than half of the people were infected with Omicron, but were not aware that they were infected.
In particular, this trend was observed irrespective of demographic or clinical characteristics, and there was no difference according to gender or race, and the presence or absence of underlying diseases (obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer) had no significant effect. .
However, in the case of health care employees, the proportion of people who recognized that they were infected with COVID-19 was higher than that of non-medical workers (adjustment ratio 2.46; 95% CI, 1.30-4.65). However, even this accounted for more than 50% of the total and less than 60%.
The research team who conducted the experiment said, “More than half of the adults who were recently infected with the Omicron mutation were unaware of their infection status, and there was no difference in the presence or severity of the underlying disease. “They were asymptomatic and only 10% of them reported common cold-like symptoms.”
“According to the results of this study, the rate of self-identification as a confirmed case in the case of omicron mutations even when infected is low, suggesting that this may be a factor in the rapid spread of the virus within the community,” he added.
