Health Times reporter Qiu Yue
At 24:00 on January 8, the Tianjin Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention completed the whole genome sequencing of the new coronavirus in 2 new local cases in Tianjin. After analysis and comparison, and confirmed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2 indigenous cases of new coronavirus belong to the Omikerong variant.
How spreadable is Omicron? What are the symptoms after infection? The Health Times reporter interviewed a woman who was recently diagnosed with new crown pneumonia in the United States, Yanni (pseudonym), who has settled in the United States with her family and has twin daughters who are almost 2 years old. At the end of 2021, she was diagnosed with COVID-19 when she was more than 8 months pregnant.
"The doctor told me that because I had been vaccinated all the time, and judging from the symptoms, I was most likely infected with Omi kerong." "They also told me that this strain is extremely contagious, but the symptoms are relatively mild," Yanni said. ”
"In the United States, the CDC will not take the initiative to do free genetic sequencing of the virus, and patients need to pay for themselves." Yanni said that given the time-consuming and costly time, I didn't specifically do genetic sequencing.
"The new crown virus is really invincible"! After the mother was diagnosed, the twin daughters were diagnosed one after another
On December 23, 2021, Yanni, who was more than 34 weeks pregnant, began to have headaches and sore throat symptoms, and since there was no fever at the time, Yanni adopted physical isolation for herself: one person lived on the first floor, and two daughters were carried by her husband and lived on the second floor. "Because I had twin daughters under the age of 2, I thought, even if it's a common cold, I don't want to infect my child."
Early the next morning, Yanni's body temperature began to rise, reaching 37.8 degrees Celsius, and her throat became more and more sore, "as if there was phlegm stuck in the throat and lungs, and I couldn't swallow it or spit it out." I guessed it might not be just the flu, so I rushed to the emergency room. ”
Yanni and the children's isolated life, courtesy of the interviewee.
At the hospital, the doctor gave Yanni four tests, including the new crown virus and the flu virus, and finally only the test results of the new crown virus showed positive.
"Although this result did not surprise me, it can be described as invincible. I am now in the third trimester, and I have been vaccinated with two doses of vaccines, and there are two children at home, the usual protection has been done very carefully, in addition to buying vegetables almost do not go out, go out will also wear a mask, I really do not know how to be infected. Yanni still wondered how she was infected.
When she returned home, Yanni was physically isolated with her daughters at the first time, but on December 27 and 29, Yanni's eldest daughter and younger daughter began to have a fever and were subsequently diagnosed with new crown. "The virus is so contagious that when my eldest daughter started to have a fever, I knew it was only a matter of time before my younger daughter was infected." Yanni told Health Times.
Low-grade fever + sore throat, feeling out of breath and coughing up phlegm
On December 25, Yanni's symptoms worsened, his throat hurt to the point of almost losing his voice, and he had to exert a lot of strength to speak, and he felt like he couldn't catch his breath.
Yanni told reporters that on the same day, she tried to clear the phlegm to make her throat more comfortable, but no matter how hard she coughed, even if she coughed up tears, she could not clear the phlegm at all. In addition, although the body temperature has not exceeded 38 ° C, I still feel weak and very uncomfortable.
On 26 December, she received a notification from the hospital asking her to go and inject monoclonal antibodies. "Originally, the antibodies were only given to severe patients or healthcare professionals, probably considering that I was pregnant, so I was also arranged for injections. Before I went, I was still very nervous, and I didn't know what would happen after the injection. On the night of the injection, I almost passed out and didn't wake up once all night, which is extremely rare for me in the third trimester. ”
After experiencing the infection, Yanni recalls a similar experience in early 2020.
"At the beginning of 2020, I, my parents-in-law and my little uncle fell ill one after another, and the symptoms were very similar to this infection, but also low-grade fever, headache, severe pain in the throat, but to a more severe extent, I also took oxygen at that time. Looking back now, it should have been infected with the new crown at that time, but because there was still little relevant information, the hospital also treated us as an ordinary bacterial infection. Yanni told the Health Times reporter.
Yanni's husband and twin daughter, courtesy of the interviewee.
After 2 weeks, the symptoms basically disappeared, Yanni: Don't take it lightly in the face of the new crown
After nearly 2 weeks of isolation treatment, Yanni and her daughters' symptoms basically disappeared. After the isolation ended, she went to the hospital for a comprehensive obstetric examination: "Since the infection with the new crown, I have injected antibodies and used some safe anti-fever and cough medicines, and the results of the obstetric examination show that my child and I are fine." ”
Although Yanni's treatment process was relatively smooth, she still told the Health Times reporter, "This virus is too easy to infect, and everyone should not take it lightly." ”
On January 8, at the Guanghua Science and Technology Public Welfare Forum held in Shanghai, Zhang Wenhong, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases And director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said that some self-media said that Aomi Kerong caused a large flu" which lacked scientific basis, and he believed that this mutant strain "will bite people" after studying the medical images of Aomi Kerong infected people. A country and region need a strong immune barrier and medical resources to defend itself against the threat of Omicron.