Last updated on June 11th, 2024 at 06:43 pm
Omicron is the covid-19 coronavirus variant that has dominated every corner of the world in just 2 months. Now its new arrival of sub-variant known Stealth Omicron has emerged, raising myriad questions related to the type of symptoms it can lead to and the risk of complications involved with it. Generally, the Omicron variant leads to common – cold, headache like symptoms that stays for a few days, but in Stealth Omicron case, people have informed developing signs related to the gut.
Why Stealth Omicron leads to gut-related symptoms
A UK-based tabloid quoted a Senior lead professor of the ZOE Covid Symptom Study, who suggested experiencing gut symptoms with Stealth Omicron – which it tells might be because the virus affects the gut instead of the nose. Therefore, most of the cases in Stealth Omicron attack to stomach issues, instead of respiratory issues. Kind of the symptom leads to confusion and people do not go for COVID testing, unknowingly put other people at risk. In many cases people are getting false negative reports as there won’t be any traces of Omicron in the nose or mouth.
Common gut-related symptoms witnessed
This Stealth Omicron is not first virus, but even in the cases of other variants people reported and experienced gut-related issues. The single difference is that with this new sub-variant Stealth Omicron, the issue is predominant. Following six common gut-related symptoms include:
- Nausea
- Diarrhoea
- Vomiting
- Abdominal pain
- Heartburn
- Bloating
​How Stealth Omicron infects the gut
As per the study associated with the ZOE COVID-19 Research, it is well proven by now that the virus intrusion the mouth or nose and starts multiplying in the lungs or respiratory. In few cases, it is transferred into the gut and may proceed to the long COVID-19. The virus cannot be traced in the swab test, so it is increasing the risk of complications.
Other common symptoms of Stealth Omicron
According on the findings, the WHO (World Health Organization) stated that Omicron mainly affects the upper respiratory tract (instead of lungs in the previous other variants), so the symptoms of this variant of covid virus are different from the previous ones. Since its a sub-variant of the Omicron virus, the same thing is witnessed with the Stealth Omicron. This also means that the variant will not lead to symptoms like taste and shortness of breath or loss of smell. Two early signs of Stealth Omicron variants are fatigue and dizziness. Apart from these dilator signs, other symptoms include:
- Fever
- Extreme fatigue
- Coughing
- Sore throat
- Sore head
- Muscular fatigue
- Elevated heart rate
How infectious is the new subvariant?
However BA.2 or Stealth Omicron is a variant of Omicron, its virological characteristics are very much different from the existing parent strain. As per researchers, the Stealth variant has about twenty mutations that differ from the original strain. This makes it challenging to determine how it can affect people and how the virus will react. The effectiveness of the vaccine and long term symptoms are something yet to be evaluated. For the time being, all we can do is get vaccinated and follow all the COVID norms like maintaining hand hygiene, wearing a mask, and avoiding crowded places.
