For almost three years, SARS-CoV-2 started a pandemic that led to millions of deaths worldwidevarious confinements and the creation of vaccines by different pharmaceutical companies.
With the majority of the population immunized, the sanitary measures for the prevention of contagion progressively disappeared. In Mexicoon October 14, 2022, we said “goodbye” to the face maskas the authorities announced that this was no longer mandatory, neither in public nor in private spaces.
To the progressive advance of antidotes and medicines to counteract the disease are also the mutations of the coronavirus. Delta, omicron and many others, have caused waves of contagion in different periods of the new normal.
It might interest you: The use of face masks is already optional in public and private spaces in CDMX
Despite the fact that at this point the levels of contagion are at their lowest point, scientists detected a new mutation of Covid-19. It’s about the Omicron BQ.1 and his sublineage Q.1.1better known as Hellhound. We tell you what we know so far.
Why is this variant called a hellhound?
According to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), Hellhound is at least 10% more transmissible than other variants and 16 infected have been found in Mexico to date.
The name refers to Greek mythology.specifically to Cerberusa dog that had three heads whose caretaker was Hades. His job was to protect the gates of hell so that the living could not enter, but especially so that the dead could not escape.
It should be noted that this name is not official, but they have begun to nickname the variant that way due to the analogy about how difficult it is to “flee from it”, since several experts have warned about its ability to evade antibodies against the virus.
It is enough to see the upward trend recorded by global infections to understand the behavior of this variant. In the United States, it already represents 11% of the total cases of Covid-19, in France 19%; in Belgium 9%; in Ireland 7% and in the Netherlands 6%.
Meanwhile, within the Mexican Republic, cases have been detected in the State of Mexico, Tabasco, Nuevo León, Campeche and Yucatán, but there has not been a considerable increase in terms of hospitalizations.
If you have not yet been vaccinated or you missed a dose, it is a good time to go to a health center near your home. Remember that the immune application is free.
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