Unvaccinated people more at risk of severe infection, hospitalization due to Omicron, says Dr Coetzee

Amid rising cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19, the expert has cautioned that though the new strain does not manifest severe symptoms in vaccinated people, it might cause serious infection in unvaccinated people.

As India has reported about 161 Omicron cases till now, with most of them being reported only with mild symptoms, the severity of the case that can cause ICU admissions is still a concern.

Sharing her experience on the same, Dr Angelique Coetzee, Chairperson of South African Medical Association, the senior doctor who first identified Omicron, said, "I don't think so. Not if it follows the same pattern as in South Africa. I'm not sure what your doctors are currently saying about the severity of Omicron, but I haven't really seen a severe case of Omicron. Hopefully, they are only witnessing mild cases as we did. But unvaccinated people might get a severe infection and might have to be admitted in hospitals."

"It is only unvaccinated people who might have to be admitted in ICU. I must say that vaccinated people in our country are experiencing milder symptoms as compared to unvaccinated ones. But that picture changed today. Today, I saw a lot of vaccinated people come with reinfections or breakthrough infections in those who did not have COVID before." said Dr Coetzee.

Dr Coetzee further said that most of these people have been vaccinated between the period from July to September. "I had one patient who had first dose of Pfizer in November and is not fully vaccinated yet. He still needs one dose to be fully vaccinated. But he only has a mild infection. Currently, if you look at all the 535 people that we have admitted so far, only a very small percentage of it had to be shifted to ICU," she added.

Dr Coetzee has monitored almost 100 Omicron patients and suggests that the new variant has a higher transmissibility than the delta variant. "Of 100 patients that I have observed, Omicron is quite transmissible. Although it seems less if I look at delta, it's not. It's definitely very, very transmissible. One patient in a family can infect at least 90 per cent of the family. Regarding the severity, we haven't observed many severe cases in South Africa," she stated.

She further explained that its almost the fifth week since the time of the outbreak of Omicron in South Africa and most of the cases reported so far manifest symptoms like body aches, headache, tiredness, dry cough and infection in the upper respiratory tract.

"It is now the fifth week since the outbreak. Most of the cases have symtoms like body aches, headache, feeling of tiredness feeling. They may or may not have cough. Mostly, it is dry cough with sore and scratchy throat. According to a recent study, it mostly affects the upper respiratory tract and doesn't affect the lower airways like the delta variant," she aded.

Speaking on hospitalizations, she said, "To give you an idea, around 87 hospitalizations were done across South Africa on December 18. Currently, there are 535 people across 666 facilities here. So it's not a lot."

According to Dr Coetzee's experience with Omicron patients and patients who were infected with delta, delta was scarier. "I've said it many times delta is scary," she stated.

Speaking on the requirement for a booster dose, she said, "just get your population vaccinated as much as possible."

As India reported some Omicron cases in children, Dr Coetzee said, "Originally, the data showed that children will be more affected. But it's not true. So we had a long discussion last night and one of the pediatricians that work in ICU informed that many of the children were admitted for something else and coincidentally, found to be COVID positive. So, they were not admitted for COVID actually. And our ICUs are also not seeing an influx of children. So for now, I think it's safe to say that in South Africa, it didn't affect the children as compared to delta."

The South African doctor further underlined about children having different symptoms than adults. Dr Coetzee said, "A bit of fever or a low-grade fever, a high pulse is common in children. They will complain of a sore throat and would have classic flu-like symptoms. And you will have to test each and everyone like any child coming in with cough, or just a runny nose or upper respiratory tract infection, you have to test them all."

Speaking on the vaccination of children, she cited an example of the Pfizer administration adding that it hasn't shown any good results. "So, if Africa has not started with vaccination for children, it was because I saw there was a paper that Pfizer doesn't really work that well It was released recently that they don't have good results or effectiveness for the children."

Speaking on the line of treatment that doctors in South Africa follow, she said, "Well, it is quite easy. We start immediately after the diagnosis with low dosage cortisone and something like ibuprofen to help with the muscle pain and headaches and that's it. That's what they give. There's nothing else. There's no oxygen, not even antibiotics."

( With inputs from ANI )

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