Omicron variant can turn serious, even fatal: Docs

MUMBAI: City doctors have started encountering cases of Omicron in the Intensive Care Units (ICUS) and HT has learnt of at least three cases, including one death, wherein doctors corroborated the presence of Omicron variant.

To be sure, the number of deaths reported daily by the Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC) in the past seven days has hovered between six (January 13) and 12 (January 20). In absolute numbers, this is far less than the peak of the second wave, when the average daily deaths reported was 52 in the months of April and May 2021.

Epidemiologists say that severe manifestation of the Covid-19 disease — irrespective of which wave, or variant — affects a section of the population that has co-morbidities, insufficient immunity, and/or is unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

However, experts pointed out that Omicron, which is known to largely affect the upper respiratory tract and thus produce milder symptoms compared to the Delta or Delta plus variant that caused damage to the lungs, can still cause severe disease, and in some instances, death.

“The Omicron variant can trigger complications depending on the co-morbid condition of the patient,” said Dr Sanjith Saseedharan, head of critical care at the SL Raheja Hospital in Mahim who has encountered two such cases including one death. In both cases, the patients underwent an RT-PCR test which used specific kits to look for the S-gene deletion —while genome sequencing is considered to be the gold standard for identifying variants of the SARSCOV-2 virus, the S-gene target failure is an indirect way to detect the Omicron variant.

Saseedharan pointed to the case of a 70-year-old unvaccinated man from Kandivli who faced breathlessness and visited the hospital in the last week of December with a Covid-19 positive report. The patient had an existing heart ailment — his heart’s pumping ability was barely 15% of a normal heart. This co-morbidity in addition to his age and unvaccinated status made him vulnerable, the doctor said. “His condition deteriorated rapidly and we had to put him on a ventilator, but he eventually developed a severe pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the lungs) and succumbed.”

In another case, Saseedharan said, a 71-year-old fully vaccinated man with multiple co-morbidities including a history of stroke, poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension and asthma, spent 12 days in the hospital including six in the ICU. “Viral infections can trigger asthma exacerbation. We gave him remdesivir, steroids and anticoagulants and he had to be put on non-invasive ventilator support,” he said adding that the patient recovered gradually.

Critical care specialist Dr Kedar Toraskar from Wockhardt Hospital said that a 60-year-old vaccinated man with hypertension is currently recovering in the ICU with Covid-19 pneumonia and on oxygen support.

IN PATIENTS WITH SEVERE RISK FACTORS, CLOSE MONITORING IS IMPORTANT. WE MUST NOT IGNORE THE DISEASE BY CALLING IT MILD, EXPERTS SAID