Eris Variant Triggers A Spike In Covid-19 Cases In The World, Here Are Symptoms

Illustration of Covid-19 (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Although the Covid-19 pandemic has ended, there are still many new variants that have the potential to cause a spike in cases. One of them is the Eris Variant (EG.5.1).

Quoted from the Ministry of Health's website, Monday, August 7, the Eris variant, which is believed to have triggered a spike in Covid-19 cases in various parts of the world, particularly in Asia and is currently surging in the UK.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also classified Eris as a variant under surveillance. Currently, the emergence of the Eris variant has been detected in various parts of the world, particularly in Asia.

The prevalence of the Eris variant reaches about 20 percent of the total Covid-19 sequence circulating in Asia, 10 percent in Europe, and seven percent in North America.

The Eris variant is a derivative of the Omicron variant. So far, there has been no indication suggesting that Eris is much worse than the original Omicron variant. WHO has also not classified Eris as a variant of concern aka variant of concern.

The spike in Covid-19 cases caused by the Eris variant was mainly caused by a number of factors that included:

1. Higher Transmission Speed: Variant Eris has properties that allow it to spread more quickly than previous variants. This makes the virus more easily spread among populations and has the potential to cause a larger cluster of infections.

2. Immunity Avoidance Potential: Some variants, including Eris, can have mutations that result in changes in viral spike proteins. This could result in a decrease in the effectiveness of immunity obtained from previous vaccinations or infections, although the vaccine still provides significant protection against severe illness and death.

3. Different Immune Responses: Variant Eris can cause a different immune response from the human immune system. This can result in more severe symptoms in some individuals or may reduce the effectiveness of certain treatments.

Efforts To Handle And Prevent

To overcome the spike in cases caused by the Eris variant and other variants, serious handling and prevention efforts are needed:

1. Vaccination: Vaccination remains a key step in reducing the impact of the pandemic. Although variants can affect the effectiveness of vaccines, vaccines can still provide important protection against serious illness and death.

2. Compliance with the Health Protocol for the use of masks, maintain social distancing, and wash hands regularly is still recommended, especially in areas with high levels of spread.

3. Virus Genome Supervision: Tracking and analyzing viral genomes continuously can help in detecting the emergence of new variants and taking swift action to control their spread.

4. Follow-up research: Study continues to understand the nature and characteristics of new variants, including the potential impact on transmission, disease severity, and vaccine response.

Symptoms Of Eris Variant

Given that Eris is a derivative of Omicron, the symptoms of Covid-19 caused by infection with the Eris variant are likely to be the same as those of Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant in general.

According to Zoe Health Study, the following are the 10 most common symptoms found in COVID-19 cases due to Omicron infection and its derivative variants:

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