United States: With another increase in COVID-19 infections occurring in summer, patients around Asia, Europe, and North America describe an excruciatingly painful sore throat so severe it has gained a theatrical moniker: razor blade throat.
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The phenomenon is not new, but it has received renewed scrutiny as a rapidly spreading Omicron subvariant, officially dubbed NB.1.8.1 but informally referred to as Nimbus, spreads.
Patients in China and other countries report the pain as one that feels like swallowing broken glass, and some claim they are no longer able to speak, eat, or even drink water, as sfchronicle.com reported.
Patients in China and elsewhere described the pain as akin to “swallowing shattered glass,” while some also stated that they’d been left unable to speak, eat, or even stay hydrated.
“Post-COVID razor blade throat is brutal — swollen, painful, and I can barely speak,” according to one of the users writing on Weibo, which is China’s leading social media platform Chinese-language media.
Additionally, another noted, “I’ve been hit with razor blade throat and feel completely drained.”
Although the symptom has a visceral nickname, the health experts stress that it is not specific to this latest wave.
“Sore throat is a common symptom of COVID and not novel at all, and not associated with any one variant, including NB.1.8.1,” as Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, stated.
“There has been a range of intensity of sore throat with COVID symptoms all along, including very severe pain,” he added.
He mentioned that up to 70 percent of individuals infected by COVID-19 experience a sore throat.
The other symptoms common with other previous strains of the virus are fatigue, mild cough, fever, muscle aches, and congestion.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which last month designated NB.1.8.1 as a SARS-CoV-2 “variant under monitoring,” “Current data do not indicate that this variant leads to more severe illness than other variants in circulation,” sfchronicle.com reported.
However, the agency said the subvariant seems to be more immune-invasive than the prevalent LP.8.1 lineage.
In China, where the second wave started in March, the cases are predicted to reach a peak at the end of June.
The NB.1.8.1 has now been identified in more than 20 countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, and early outbreaks were reported in California, Washington, and New York.