“It seems that this is a serious wave of illness, because I managed to avoid the corona for 4 and a half years and only now I got infected for the first time,” says Noa (pseudonym), in a conversation with mako health. The symptoms she reports are quite familiar and were also observed in the previous waves of illness – “Last Friday I woke up with pain all over my body and above my eyes, crazy weakness and a high temperature of 38 degrees”. However, other patients we spoke with report that they felt additional symptoms, some of which were quite disturbing. Hagit (pseudonym), says that during a family event she began to feel confusion and a severe lack of concentration. “I came to an event last week and I called people other names, and confused them with other people, it got to the point where a relative of mine tried to silence me. At another event I went to, my whole face was covered in red, despite the fact that I looked in the mirror 200 times and didn’t see it.” According to her, she also felt difficulty in orienting herself in space. “I was constantly in a feeling of fear, I felt like I didn’t really know where I was.”
Michal (pseudonym), who also got sick with corona recently, because corona amplifies the patient’s weak points many times over. “I normally suffer from lower back pain. It’s not something that disables me but something that’s always there, and as soon as I got sick with Corona I just felt like I couldn’t move. I couldn’t stand up straight or sit down. My muscles and bones hurt. It was accompanied by fever and chills.” Other corona patients we spoke with indicate that they also felt serious stomach pains and diarrhea.
“We expect to see a continued increase in morbidity in the coming month”
Prof. Cyril Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar-Ilan University, explains that there are several new strains of corona, the most prominent among them in the current wave of morbidity are: Lb1, Kp2, Kp3. According to him, it does not seem that the new variants differ in terms of their severity, or cause more severe morbidity. “Among the patients, the familiar symptoms appear such as fever and chills, sore throat at the beginning of the disease, fatigue, muscle pain, as well as loss of taste and smell. In the last year, another symptom was added to the morbidity of the Omicron strains, and some patients also report abdominal pain and diarrhea and other symptoms.”
Regarding the new symptoms reported by the patients, he says: “Part of what the patients describe is certainly familiar, namely increased fatigue and the phenomenon of brain fog, meaning fogginess and difficulty concentrating. Regarding back pain, it is difficult to say, but since it is a viral disease, muscle pain, joint pain, and an increase in the intensity of such pain are certainly possible.”
The professor adds that the increase currently observed in Israel is happening at the same time throughout the world. “All viruses from the corona virus family circulate throughout the year, without a defined season, so I am not surprised that the increase in morbidity is happening now. CDC data Those updated as of the end of the week indicate an increase in about 40 states in the US. Only in California, there are twice and even three times as many cases of morbidity in the recent period.” According to the data of the Ministry of Health, as of today there are about 820 active patients, but according to the professor, many of the patients do not perform tests at all. “The number of those verified is in the tens of thousands.” He adds that “we expect to see a continued increase in morbidity in the coming month, and then a stabilization, similar to the previous waves of morbidity.”
The professor emphasizes that, similar to the flu, getting sick with corona, especially among older people and people suffering from a weak immune system, can cause serious effects. “It is true that nowadays we refer to the corona as a viral illness similar to the flu, but the flu also has complications. Therefore, if a person feels symptoms of the corona virus, he should be tested with a home antigen test, which gives a satisfactory answer, and in the event that he receives a positive answer, he should avoid contact with people who have They have a higher chance of getting a serious disease.” By the way, he points out that it is recommended to be tested on the second or third day when symptoms are felt, as sometimes an antigen test that is performed too early may miss the presence of the virus in the body.
Will we soon need another dose of vaccine? The professor claims that studies carried out in recent years have confirmed that there is value in vaccinating the elderly population every year in order to prevent serious illness. However, he emphasizes that, unlike the flu, the corona virus behaves differently and changes quickly, so sometimes the new vaccines are not up-to-date.