The current corona wave is spreading at breakneck speed. The omicron variant BA.5 is currently predominant in Germany. A recent study shows that most people may not even know they have been infected with omicron.
The omicron is a variant of the coronavirus. This also includes subvariant BA.5, which according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) currently dominates the infection process in Germany. According to this, at the end of July 2022, the proportion of new infections with BA.5 was over 90 percent.1 Before that, subvariant BA.2 dominated, which has since been suppressed. What is special about the Omikron variants is the high risk of infection and the rapid spread that this has caused. According to a study, Omikron is also to blame for the fact that most people have not noticed their infection with Corona.
Unnoticed corona infections accelerate the spread
As American scientists from the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Center (Los Angeles, California) found out in a study, most corona infections now probably go completely unnoticed.2 This could be one of the main reasons why the omicron variants spread so quickly worldwide. It would also be an explanation for the current summer wave that we have in Germany – although experts actually expected a decrease in infections in the summer.
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Omicron study with 210 participants
The researchers began taking blood samples from American healthcare workers more than two years ago to monitor the development of the corona pandemic. This is reported by the science portal «Medical Xpress».3 Of the subjects who took part in the study, the researchers identified 2,479 people who had contributed blood samples shortly before or after the start of the omicron wave. According to antibody tests, 210 people were most likely infected with the omicron variant. The median age in this group was 51, with the youngest being 23 and the oldest being 84.
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The majority of the subjects did not notice the corona infection
These subjects were then asked to answer questions about their state of health. It turned out that only 44 percent of the participants with omicron antibodies knew they had been infected with the virus. The majority of the subjects, 56 percent, did not know and had not noticed the corona infection. Another interesting point: Only 10 percent of the study participants who did not realize they were infected reported symptoms that indicated a cold or similar infections.
«More than one in two people infected with omicron didn’t know they had it,» said Susan Cheng, director of the Healthy Aging Research Institute at the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Center. According to the researchers, it was already assumed that around 25 to 80 percent of those infected with corona show no symptoms. And because the omicron variant often only caused mild symptoms, it may have led to more people being unknowingly infected.
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Experts advise more frequent corona rapid tests
According to the current study, it can be assumed that around every second infected person has not noticed Corona. This could be exactly why the omicron wave has spread so quickly, even in summer, despite the fact that many people meet outside rather than indoors.
«Our study results show that undiagnosed infections can increase transmission of the virus,» said Sandy Y. Joung, the study’s lead author. «Low awareness of the infection probably contributed to the rapid spread of omicron.» That is why the scientists recommend that you should test yourself for corona even if you have mild symptoms and after meeting in large groups. Because only if you know that you are infected can you isolate yourself and protect others from infection.