After registering more than 616 million confirmed cases of the disease caused by COVID-19 and 6.5 million deaths, the world was carried away by a “new normal” and relaxed the imposed sanitary measures.
However, experts in the field assure that the pandemic continues, such as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the United States, Anthony Fauci, who stated in a publication last October that “we should not be surprised” that a new variant of the coronavirus will be detected.
And such is the case, since the latest variant has already appeared in the world, it is known as BQ.1.1 of COVID-19 and has been nicknamed “Hellhound”.
The original name of this new Omicron variant is BQ.1 like BQ.1.1, however it was given a nickname in Germany and it was spread on social networks, now either in Spanish or English, it has been found that Internet users refer to this virus as “Hellhound” or “Cerberus”, presumably because it supposes a state of greater severity than the previously known variants.
Hellhound is conceived in Greek mythology, under the title of Cerberus. This little animal was neither more nor less than the dog of the god Hades. In the books, it is described as a monster that had from three to fifty heads and instead of a cartilage tail, it had a snake on its tail and a few others that protruded from various parts of its body.
Cerberus stood out for having been the fierce guardian of the gates of hell, he was the one who took care that the dead did not leave and at the same time that the living could not enter the underworld.
The name that has identified this variant is not officially “Hellhound”, since the name isn’t used by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Hellhound” seems to have first appeared on Twitter and another theory is that it was used to make it easier to remember the variant type, given the difficulty in remembering the official name. This would not be the first time this has happened, since in recent years there have been other cases of unofficial identifications, for example with “Centaurus”, which was applied to this nickname for the BA.2.75 variant.
Anthony Fauci, Chief Epidemiologist of the White House, has commented that the BQ.1.1 variant presents “dangerous qualities or characteristics that could evade some of the interventions that we have.”
Eric Topol, the founder of the Scripps Translational Research Institute, assured that one of the biggest concerns around “Hellhound” is that “it is riddled with problematic mutations that could pose a threat to our immune system response”, he stated for Times magazine.
Experts predict that the omicron-linked variant known as “Hellhound” will expand in late November and early December. According to first investigations, it is reported that it could be 10 percent more contagious than the previous ones, in addition to the fact that respiratory infections and viruses are on the rise as autumn has settled in and is about to give way to harsh winter.
Hellhound is rapidly growing and arriving around Europe, according to data provided by the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), this variant is expected to exceed 50 percent in Europe in the coming weeks.
It is worth mentioning that until now, there is no conclusive evidence that Hellhound is more contagious or that any of the vaccines are not effective against this variant. Similarly, this is based on the fact that it was the World Health Organization (WHO) itself that assured in October that so far there are no “epidemiological data that suggest an increase in severity.”
BQ.1.1 was identified in cases originating in five countries belonging to the European Union, for example, France has 25 percent of infections, Belgium remains at 10 percent, Ireland 7 percent, the Netherlands has 6 percent and finally, Italy remains at 5 percent.
Spain, at the moment, represents 2.7 percent of active infections, and according to Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic scientist, precisely these BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants very possibly “can lead to an increase severe disease for winter in the US” as is already happening in Europe and the UK.
On Saturday, November 12, the Minister of Health in Chile, Ximena Aguilera, confirmed that the sub-variant “Hellhound” has been detected in Chile, however, it is not considered “predominant” in the cases of COVID that are currently present in the country.
“Here it has been detected, but it is not the predominant one. We continue with the predominance of BA.4 and BA.5 (…) it has this stronger transmission capacity, but there is no evidence that it is more serious”, explained the headline.
Experts warned that basic precautions against COVID-19 should not be forgotten. At least in Mexico, the use of face masks in work centers and other closed spaces was left to the particular consideration of the conditions in said places, in collective public transport, it continues to be a recommended sanitary measure.
Experts predict that the omicron-linked variant known as "Hellhound" will expand in late November and early December. According to first investigations, it is reported . . .
