Cough To Fever Dominant Symptoms Omicron BA.4 And BA.5

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Lung Doctors Association (PDPI) conveys that cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever are the dominant symptoms of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub variants.

"The dominant symptoms are cough, sore throat, fever and runny nose," said the Chair of the PDPI Infection Working Group, Dr. dr. Erlina Burhan, M.Sc, Sp.P(K) in a webinar themed "Update on Management of COVID-19" quoted by Antara, Tuesday, June 28.

He said the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants were included in the variant of concern (VOC) set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The BA.4 sub-variant was found around January 2022 and BA.5 in February in South Africa, then the cases increased in a number of countries and it is suspected that the nature of the sub-variant has the ability to evade immunity," he said.

He said, as of June 23, 2022, there were 21 cases of BA.4 in the country, with the most productive age being 20-59 years old.

"BA.4 in children is 5 percent and in the elderly there are around 15 percent, 90 percent are Indonesian citizens. So this is really a local transmission and there are more males than females," he explained.

62 percent of BA.4 patients had been vaccinated against the third dose, 24 percent of the complete vaccine had been vaccinated, only 5 percent had not been vaccinated.

"Those who have not been vaccinated are related to age, namely children under 5 years old," he said.

For BA.5 cases, he continued, there were 122 cases. This new sub variant is expected to continue to grow until now.

"92 percent of them are Indonesian citizens, generally they are self-isolating at home because their symptoms are mild," he said.

Meanwhile, based on a study in Hong Kong, Erlina said, the difference between the Omicron, Delta or early variants is in the bronchi.

"The Omicron variant has a 70 times higher infection and replication rate than Delta. While the replication in lung tissue is only 10 times. This shows why the symptoms are many in the upper tract," he explained.

For the mortality rate, it is said, the Omicron variant is lower than the Delta. And the length of stay in the hospital is also shorter compared to Delta.

"The risk of death is low, the risk of long COVID-19 is also low, but we still have to take care of ourselves and our environment so we don't get infected," he said.