Arcturus, also known as Covid XBB.1.16, has spread globally this year, hitting the headlines and worrying experts.
Dr Stephen Griffin, an associate professor in virology at the, said:"Yes, it's true that there seems to be a rise in conjunctivitis in children in India, with a certain type of conjunctivitis associated with viral infections. I think there needs to be more studies based on that, but certainly, observationally, it seems to be happening."
First detected in January this year, cases of the new variant spread across the world in February, with around 4,000 documented sequences – India , USA , Singapore , Australia and Canada .Speaking with Yahoo News, Dr Michael Chang, a paediatric infections diseases expert at UTHealth Houston and Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, said there was not enough evidence to prove that conjunctivitis was occurring due to Arcturus.
He said:"We don't have the context of whether they're seeing that in some of the regions in India. We know their Covid cases are going up, and presumably, these kids are testing positive for Covid, but we don't know if they're testing positive for anything else either."
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