The variant has a very clear impact on the number of reinfections. Between early March and early December 2021, these were 0.8% of all infections in France. They accounted for 3.6% between early December and end of January.
by
“Tuesday 8 February, I felt first chills. My hierarchical manager had just been tested positive at COVID-19, I ran to a pharmacy: my antigenic test was positive,” says Daniel (The first name has been changed), 40 years old. Shortly after, this researcher has developed intense headache and muscle pain, a high fever and violent digestive symptoms. “A dirty moment but lasted only three days. Ten weeks earlier, I had made a first infection with the SARS-COV-2. My symptoms, more violent, have required a passage to the emergency room and they have Larned ten days. I had received two doses of vaccine without being eligible for the reminder then. “
Reinfections at COVID-19 are becoming more frequent. Testify to The latest public health data France (SPF) on the subject, published Thursday, February 17 . For SPF, a “possible reinfection” concerns anyone-tested person at sixty days of interval or more. “Reinfections before this sixty-day period are not counted”, admits Sibyl Bernard-Stoecklin, Epidemiologist at SPF.
Between December 5, 2021 and January 27, 3.6% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases were reinfection, reveals the agency. 4.5 times more than during the previous period, between early March and early December 2021: the proportion of reinfections was 0.8% of infections. According to SPF, 416,995 possible reinfection cases were identified between March 2, 2021 and January 27, 2022. The vast majority (92%) of the reinfections occurred since 1 December 2021, With an overreprepreation of health professionals and young adults (18-40 years old). Thus, the 18 -40 years accounted for more than half (52.3%) of possible reinfections, versus 39.2% of confirmed infections.
Many mutations
It is “very likely” that this outbreak of reinfection, since the beginning of December, “largely due to the impact of the Omicron variant in terms of increased transmissibility and immune exhaust”, relieves SPF. In fact, Omicron was probably involved in 79% of these reinfections over the period of the study, suggest screening tests.
“The main guilty is Omicron, of course,” professor Olivier Schwartz, head of the Virus and Immunity Unit of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Omicron is a “distant cousin” variants that were circulating before, he recalls, with different biological and structural characteristics. “This has allowed him to take over and infect people already immunized by previous infections or through vaccination.”
The famous Spike or “Spicule” which brings the virus envelope – the key that allows it to open human cells – is more compact for OMICRON than for other variants. It carries, moreover, many mutations. “The Omicron Spicule escapes most antibodies” developed against the previous variants (this protein being the preferred target of these missiles forged by our immune defenses to neutralize the virus) specifies Olivier Schwartz. Added to this is the extreme contagiousness of this variant which, attached to the growing number of people already infected, helps to explain this outbreak of reinfection.
You have 44.62% of this article to be read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.