{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T20:21:42Z","timestamp":1780345302344,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,15]],"date-time":"2024-03-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1710460800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Sports of the Federal State Government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany","award":["0680 894.01 MG 80"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["0680 894.01 MG 80"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Omicron variants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5 caused several waves of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany in 2022. In this comparative study, public health data on SARS-CoV-2 infections from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, between January and October 2022 were examined retrospectively using Pearson\u2019s chi-squared tests and Fisher\u2019s exact tests for testing for statistical significance. Compared to BA.5 infections, BA.1 and BA.2 infections affected younger individuals aged up to 19 years significantly more often, whereas BA.5 infections occurred significantly more frequently in patients between 40 and 59 years of age when compared to BA.1 and BA.2. Infections with all three variants predominantly caused flu-like symptoms; nevertheless, there were significant differences between the reported symptoms of BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5 infections. Especially, the symptoms of \u2018fever\u2019, \u2018severe feeling of sickness\u2019, \u2018loss of taste\u2019, and \u2018loss of smell\u2019 were significantly more often present in patients with BA.5 infections compared to BA.1 and BA.2 cases. Additionally, BA.2 and BA.5 cases reported significantly more often the symptoms of \u2018runny nose\u2019 and \u2018cough\u2019 than BA.1-infected cases. Our findings indicate remarkable differences in the clinical presentations among the sub-lineages, especially in BA.5 infections. Furthermore, the study demonstrates a powerful tool to link epidemiological data with genetic data in order to investigate their potential impact on public health.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v16030454","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,15]],"date-time":"2024-03-15T12:02:39Z","timestamp":1710504159000},"page":"454","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Clinical Manifestations of Infections with the Omicron Sub-Lineages BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5: A Retrospective Follow-Up Analysis of Public Health Data from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Katja Verena","family":"Goller","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Central Unit for Infection Prevention and Control and Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, 17475 Greifswald, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Janine","family":"Ziemann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Central Unit for Infection Prevention and Control and Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, 17475 Greifswald, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christian","family":"Kohler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute of Medical Microbiology, University Medicine Greifswald, 17475 Greifswald, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6391-1341","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karsten","family":"Becker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute of Medical Microbiology, University Medicine Greifswald, 17475 Greifswald, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nils-Olaf","family":"H\u00fcbner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Central Unit for Infection Prevention and Control and Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, 17475 Greifswald, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"name":"on behalf of the CoMV-Gen Study Group","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2022, September 28). 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