Treatment of Omicron...

well we're very interested in your

experience because as I mentioned you

were the first doctor to suspect a

different coronavirus strain what did

you notice in your patients

so that's very interesting  you know

for the at least the last eight to ten

weeks we had what I call a breather

and we didn't see um really any code

with nineteen patients our infectivity

the rate was less than one percent so around

about this eighteenth

a young man came in he's thirty years of

age to me he doesn't feel well he's

very tired um

and he's got a slight headache and body

aches and pains and he actually thought

as well that it was because he was

working and it was extremely hot on the

Saturday and he thought that it was

coming from that

but for me you know to have that

type of symptoms I decided to test him

and he tested positive

simultaneously his family also had a

mate also made an appointment his wife in

the one child

um they said to me no they don't feel

well more at least the same but not as

tired as her husband

and both

the mother and the child also tasted

positive and there was a baby of four

weeks about four months old and we

tested the baby

The baby didn't have any symptoms and the

the baby was fine the baby tested positive

as well

but not a not

if it is very very

mild disease

uh easily treated well the the man is

already back at work um

and uh thereafter we have seen seven

more patients on the same day very

unusual

uh because I have access to the advisory

committee

um I we normally chat on the on the

whatsapp and I said listen guys I've

seen a

very interesting cases today it's not

the same clinical symptoms and with

um the delta variant uh

it's it's more similar to beta at that

stage I thought it was maybe more beta

related um or

the the other only other solution was uh

or conclusion was that it should be a

new variant they say they're not aware

of any variants at that stage, you know

variance that that is affecting us but

at the same time simultaneously our labs

also, pick up

a pc artist that was different from the

normal PCR results that they set in

um so everything sort of worked together

they also alert the NiCd and then last

the week the new variant was announced um

can I just jump into

before we get to what the lab found so

it was a young man so the symptoms you

mentioned they were mild they were

easily treatable and they were different

in that, it was exhaustion just a general

melees kind of feeling so these but but

it's key that you would notice mild and

easily treatable so off these samples go

to the lab and this new variant is

identified with 32 different mutations

and when that information comes back to

you what then was your reaction

well actually um I did a rapid test on

that young man and my reaction was one

of shock

you know I didn't expect after 10 weeks

of peace

life coming back to normal that was

really a big big shock I think the poor

the patient saw the shock on my face because

I said no not again I don't you know

it's like PTSD you don't want to go

through this again you have been through

that now three times

are you not going to go through this a

fourth time but unfortunately there's

nothing that you can do you you will go

through it, i think that's a bit what the

the world is doing but we'll get to global

reaction in just a second so you had

shock too and now at this point now that

it's been identified with all of these

mutations such as a high number of

mutations a variant of concern is

identified so quickly by the wh

what are the key how worried are you

about this and what are the key aspects

that is causing that level of concern

for you

so at this stage at this moment in time

um we are seeing young people mostly

with um who's being positive

um so far again that is up until today

maybe next week the picture will change

um they are easily treatable at home

and there's no need at this stage for

anyone to be admitted um the ones that

we are seeing and

the same with some of my colleagues

um also spoke with with some of the

specialists at um some of the bigger

hospitals in the Pretoria region because

we are the epicenter also didn't see a

the huge influx of patients um coming in one

or two patients in the hospital

um not uh the same that they are seeing

in the barracuda hospital, they are

seeing um young

more young people I'm not sure what

amount of what is the number of people

admitted there but they have

co-morbidities and whether that's Omron

omicron or

delta I'm not sure

what we are seeing in the surgeries uh

again it's predominantly young people

uh and interesting enough I have um on

Friday

seen two patients for a PCR test one 66

year-old lady it's been vaccinated and a

the guy in his uh around about 45 also being

vaccinated they both came back positive

but they are not extremely sick

so for now, it's

it looks fine um

and yeah if you have and yeah

everyone is talking

to the point that we as you said it

could be a very different picture in one

weeks and we don't know so much

about this this variant as it's just

arrived on the scene so the questions

that people seem to be pointing to are

just how transmissible is this if you're

indicating it's already in people who've

had the vaccination and potentially and

secondly, will it be able to evade

immunity from either vaccination or from

previous infection so how will people

scientists like yourself how will we go

about identifying answering those key

questions

very important so

here you need the clinical information

from the patient

I just saw a young man just

that's why I was late for this

27 years old he thought he had a tick

bite

and said to me you know I sometimes feel

very much the same as when he had

covert in July or also confirmed covert

um but he's only um something at this

stage except of that for the tiredness

and the headache and um

a bit of a very burning you know

eyes sore eyes that's more um you know

irritated eyes

so i just tested him in his positive so

this is the first potion that i'm now

seeing that had covered um six months

ago

and testing positive so that is a

reinfection so whether that's going to

go forward i don't know the rest of the

people that i've seen this morning was

all non-vaccinated young people mostly

children

that tested positive and that is how we

normally see it in the beginning of a

wife

young people it's predominately the the

children that gets positive um

results and then spreading it further so

um

the uh i i'm extremely happy

for these people that i have seen that's

been vaccinated

um the elderly like i've just mentioned

that lady and there was another lady as

well 61 also vaccinated very mild

symptoms i saw her last week she was

supposed to follow up today and she said

listen i'm not even going to come in i'm

fine and that is the same that we have

seen so

only time will tell us within the next

week or two what is going to happen

going forward but the symptoms are not

the same than with delta that is

important measures that we need to get

out so that there's an awareness and the

people out there

um if you're not feeling okay for the

past day or two

go to your doctor especially if it's

something like operation to retract um

related symptoms go and get yourself

tested make sure you're vaccinated if

you're not

wear your mask and let us see whether we

can keep this virus

symptoms mild

and not severe and not severe so take

precautions

go back to those public health measures

that the world has been following for

nearly two years now but what we've seen

in the global response dr cozier has

been a clamping down at the borders and

at airports travel restrictions widely

brought in japan today

israel the u.s is about to announce

restrictions today

i believe we had a clip from you from

the weekend saying it's hype and it

doesn't make any sense how would you

assess the global response to what you

are seeing clinically

well at this stage the this is a total

overreaction um as i said the whole

clinical picture might change and people

will say yes but isn't that our right to

do to protect our um

people in our countries yes it's your

right to protect people in your

countries but then i would have then i

would also caution you and say

no one will sleep safely at night not

before africa has been vaccinated so if

africa has not been vaccinated because

this is where your variants are going to

start and your mutations so you want to

sleep safely at night get africa

vaccinated uh if we can start there

i think we will we will already be

halfway through all the things to close

your borders i can promise you with this

small type of symptoms that we have seen

you will

the i'm quite sure your this variant is

already in some most of these countries

that's now trying to

to lock out um south africa

dr kozieb you have another interview i

have to let you go unfortunately because

i very much enjoyed our time a very

powerful argument for global vaccine

equity which is certainly a message that

we're talking about this morning as well

thank you very much for sharing your

experience and we'll be in touch and

following this as one of the countries

now dealing with this variant we

appreciate it