2023-12-27 04:35:43
Rajana Hamiya wrote in “Al-Akhbar”: After a period of “hibernation”, “Corona” returned to the top of the list of viruses with the remarkable activity of the new sub-mutant JN1 in a large number of countries in the world, especially in North America and most European countries. The rapid spread of the variant that was detected last September prompted the World Health Organization to finally declare it an “interesting variant,” after it was found that a third of “Corona” infections bore its fingerprint. The organization explained last week that the speed of spread exceeded 50% in most countries of the world “between November 20 and December 17,” and it is a candidate to become the “alternative” to previous Corona variants. Biological sciences specialist Fadi Abdel Sater confirmed that comparing the period between the beginning of The emergence of the virus and the beginning of this month indicate a “rocketing” rise. Initially, the percentage of people infected with it in the United States, for example, was 0.1% and rose to 25% last month, reaching 50% today. The same situation is in France, where the number of people infected with the mutant exceeded 50%. In European countries where the mutant is spreading rapidly, “JN1 appears in one out of every four infected people who undergo a PCR test.”
Mutant complications of JN1
The JN1 mutant was discovered last September, when genetic maps for monitoring the coronavirus showed a decrease in the ability of antibodies to neutralize it. Before that, the World Health Organization had monitored it before it was officially announced, but it considered it a partial mutant of the previous mutant BA before it became clear that it had new characteristics that made it a new mutant, as it had a great ability to evade immunity, whether immunity was through the vaccine or Acquired from a previous injury. According to Abdel Sater, JN1 has “an additional mutation than the previous mutant, which evades the immune system and causes infection.”
What if the new mutant spreads in Lebanon? Al-Bizri answered briefly, “There is no need to be afraid or to cause panic,” as “it has been shown through monitoring infections and hospitalizations that it does not cause severe lung infections,” and its symptoms are similar to previous variants in terms of nasal and throat congestion, fatigue, and heat, and sometimes loss of the sense of smell and taste. “This is the only difference from seasonal influenza,” according to Abdel Sater. As for the more severe effects, they affect – as in previous variants – the elderly and those suffering from incurable and chronic diseases, and therefore “prevention and protection measures must be adhered to in order to preserve this group and not expose them to danger.” Although the phenomenon of infections is expected, Al-Bizri confirms that “every rapidly spreading variant has the characteristics of hidden transmission, but does not cause severe disease.”
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