Pink eye among symptoms of growing strain of COVID

An emerging strain of COVID-19 appears to cause conjunctivitis – also known as pink eye – particularly in children, doctors say.

The XBB.1.16 subvariant – which has been dubbed “arcturus” on social media – was first detected in January. It has been found in 42 countries, with India representing its biggest hotspot.

In the United States, XBB.1.16, another descendant of the highly contagious omicron, accounts for about 12% of new cases, second only to XBB.1.5 at 69%. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last week, the World Health Organization named XBB.1.16 as an interesting variant.

While the WHO has noted conjunctivitis as a known, albeit rare, symptom with older strains of COVID, some doctors, according to reports, say it seems to cause more fever and is more likely to produce pink eyes.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the light tissue covering the white part of the eye and the inside of the eyelids. This results in eyes that are red and puffy and produce a sticky discharge. Some types of pink eye can easily spread from person to person.

dr. Vipin Vashishtha, pediatrician in India, tweeted earlier this month that he was seeing cases of COVID-19 in children for the first time in six months and an emerging trend of them having “itchy conjunctivitis with sticky eyes, not seen in the previous waves”.

Concerns about conjunctivitis come as allergy season kicks into high gear in the United States, and doctors warn against assuming pink eye is linked to COVID-19.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology Remarks that children frequently get conjunctivitis and eye symptoms alone are unlikely to indicate COVID. If the child has been exposed to someone with the virus and appears to have pink eye, parents should contact their doctor to discuss testing.

Previous studies have shown that adults with COVID-19 can also get conjunctivitis, but at a much lower rate than children.

Arcturus may also exhibit more common COVID symptoms, including fever, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, and fatigue.

While the WHO claims that XBB.1.16 has “immune evasion properties” that could cause it to become the dominant strain in some countries, it does not appear to cause disease more severe than that seen in XBB.1.5. The agency noted, however, that there had been slight increases in hospital bed occupancy in India and Indonesia.

“It’s very difficult to predict,” Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, told a news conference last week. “We don’t always deal with the same thing. The virus continues to evolve, it continues to test our immune systems, it continues to try to evade those immune systems, so we have to remain vigilant.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that the rise of XBB.1.16 illustrates that COVID-19 is always changing and capable of causing new surges in cases and deaths.

“We remain hopeful that sometime this year we can declare the end of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern, but this virus is here to stay and all countries will need to learn how to manage it. alongside other infectious diseases,” he said.

According to the CDC, the United States is averaging nearly 13,000 new infections a day, although this is believed to be a vast undercount due to fewer tests and unreported positive home tests . There were 1,052 COVID deaths in the United States last week.