Does Pirola have anything to do with the mystery of the tennis players knocked out at the US Open?
A malaise has overwhelmed many tennis players competing at the US Open in New York. They complain of fatigue, nausea and difficulty breathing. Is it the latest Covid variant nicknamed Pirola or another virus?
Tiredness, nausea, cough, stuffy nose. In two words, flu symptoms. Many of the tennis players competing at the US Open complained of the same discomfort and some were forced to retire.
Among the hypotheses, Pirola makes its way, the latest Covid variant that has attracted the attention of experts for its many mutations. In fact, although the players are in close contact and share many structures, they are not required to undergo a test and this makes it difficult to determine the real cause of the disease that is circulating between them.
A VIRUS RUNS ON AND OFF THE FIELD
“I feel like a zombie,” said 29-year-old Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who reached the US Open final last year. Jabeur said she was treated for a week but experienced breathing difficulties during the meetings.
Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori, 24, withdrew before even taking the field due to an unspecified illness and Tennys Sandgren, 32, although he did not pass qualifying , wrote on Twitter that he had caught a virus at the US Open.
The Austrian Dominic Thiem, 30, after having doubled over several times on the net and on the chair during the breaks of the games due to stomach pains, withdrew and then there was the case of the American Christopher Eubanks, 27 years, literally forced to escape to the toilet when meeting with the French Bonzi. Before the match he had taken medication for a feeling of nausea.
Czech Petra Kvitová, 33, also suffered stomach pains before losing to Caroline Wozniacki and Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, 26, before succumbing to Jack Draper, struggled on the pitch and was treated by medical staff.
But even from the stands we heard sneezing, coughing, noses blowing or sticking up, and even among the staff, journalists and photographers it seems that there are the same symptoms. Former tennis player and commentator John McEnroe, now back at work, said he has been positive in recent days.
PIROLA HYPOTHESIS
In a context where neither players nor spectators are asked to provide proof of vaccination, wear a mask or undergo a test before participating and the symptoms are similar to those of Covid, especially those of this variant – cough, cold, nausea and headache – the suspicion that the virus is returning is high.
However, in the absence of tests, it is not possible to say with certainty that it is Covid and if all the players have the same disease or if their cases are connected, but something is certainly going on around the US Open.
However, it is undeniable that these cases are occurring at a time when the number of positives throughout the United States, and especially in the Northeast and West, are increasing. In fact, although the average hospitalization rate is not a perfect parameter, between June and July the number of hospitalizations increased by about 17% and other signals, such as wastewater analyses, also indicate a greater spread of the virus.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT PIROLA
The new BA.2.86 lineage, this is the official name of Pirola, was identified in mid-August by the US CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that it had classified it as a "variant under monitoring" due to the large number of mutations which he carries with him. In fact, there are 36 of them.
It descends from BA.2 but took an evolutionary leap similar to the one that gave rise to Omicron.
Even in the United States, although the dominant variant since August is EG.5, known as Eris, the attention of experts is directed to Pirola due to its mutations. In fact, it has so far been identified in a few dozen cases of Covid on four continents, but it is suspected that it is much more widespread.
As the New York Times writes, data posted Aug. 31 on Twitter by Chinese scientists show that BA.2.86 is so different that it easily escapes antibodies produced by previous infections even more so than EG.5 does.
Two other studies, however, carried out by the University of Peking and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm believe that Pirola is capable of escaping the immune response, but less than expected, and is also less contagious than the other variants in circulation.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/il-mistero-dei-tennisti-ko-agli-us-open-centra-pirola/ on Thu, 07 Sep 2023 10:57:18 +0000.