The UKHSA has noted that a new strain of COVID-19 virus, called Stratus, with two variants, XFG and XFG.3, has accounted for a high proportion cases in England, reports the Independent. Among these two variants, XFG.3 has accounted for 30% of cases in the country.

However, experts have suggested to not panic on the arrival of this new strain. Dr Alex Allen, consultant epidemiologist of UKHSA said, "It is normal for viruses to mutate and change over time," as reported by the Independent. However, the UKHSA has also confirmed that it continues to monitor all strains of COVID in the UK. For now, experts are not concerned over the spread.

What Is Stratus XFG and XFG.3?

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), XFG is a "variant under monitoring" and that any health risk posed by this variant remain low at the global level.

As of now, globally, XFG has the highest relative growth when compared to the other variants that are currently active and circulating, including "Nimbus" NB.1.8.1.

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The WHO also confirmed that current data does not indicate that this variant leads to more severe illness or deaths than the other currently active variants in circulation.

Unique Symptoms Of Stratus COVID Strain

While the strain is said to be not a cause of concern, the symptoms may be unique from what we traditionally know COVID symptoms to be.

The WHO however, time and again has said that there is no increase in severity. It said, "While there are reported increases in cases and hospitalisations in some of the [South-east Asia Region] countries, which has the highest proportion of XFG, there are no reports to suggest that the associated disease severity is higher as compared to other circulating variants."

Dr Allen also seconded the opinion and said, "Based on the available information so far, there is no evidence to suggest that the XFG and XFG.3 variants cause more severe disease than previous variants, or that the vaccines in current use will be less effective against them.”

The unique symptoms of Stratus COVID strain includes:

• Sore throat or hoarseness, as experts have also claimed that Stratus can give patients a "hoarse voice".
• Headaches that can last several days
• Nasal congestion and mild fever
• Fatigue that lingers beyond acute phase

Other than these unique symptoms, the common COVID symptoms like change in smell or taste, shortness of breath and chest discomfort remain, however, it may be uncommon in vaccinated individuals.

Are There Any Risks Around The New Stratus Strain?

XFG is growing rapidly compared to co-circulating variants globally. However, XFG exhibits only marginal additional immune evasion over [other varient] LP.8.1. While there are reported increases in cases and hospitalizations in some of the [South-east Asia Region] countries, which has the highest proportion of XFG, there are no reports to suggest that the associated disease severity is higher as compared to other circulating variants. The available evidence on XFG does not suggest additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating Omicron descendant lineages," said WHO.

Do We Need New Vaccines For The New Strain?

The WHO said that as per the current available data, the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines are expected to remain effective against symptomatic and severe diseases, including caused by the new strain.

However, Dr Kaywaan Khan, Harley Street GP and founder of Hannah London Clinic told Cosmopolitan UK that due to certain mutations in the spike protein in Stratus strain, it could evade antibodies "developed from prior infections or vaccinations".

While WHO noted that the risk of vaccine evasion is low, it also noted that more studies must be added to assess the risk of antibody escape.

Parts of the US, particularly Fort Collins, Colorado, are currently playing host to rabbits with black tentacles that are definitely not pleasing to look at. They have got black, spike-like growths sprouting from their faces, resembling something between sea anemone tentacles and mediaeval torture devices. And officials say you should absolutely avoid touching them.

The unsettling appearance is caused by the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as the Shope papilloma virus. This rare condition causes wart-like tumours to erupt on or around the head of a rabbit, eventually hardening into horn-like growths made of keratin, the same stuff your fingernails are made of.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officials say they do not believe the virus can spread to humans or pets, but the advice is still clear: do not attempt to handle, rescue, or play with these unfortunate creatures.

How It Spreads

CRPV is mostly spread via blood-sucking insects like mosquitoes and ticks. Once they bite an infected rabbit, they can pass the virus to the next one they feed on. The good news is that scientists say it is almost never transmitted by direct rabbit-to-rabbit contact and there is no evidence of insect bites passing the virus to humans.

First signs include small red bumps that eventually morph into grotesque growths. In extreme cases, these tumours can get so large they block the rabbit’s vision, hearing, or even ability to eat, leading to slow starvation.

To Save or Not to Save?

On social media, the debate is heating up over whether it is more humane to euthanise severely infected wild rabbits to prevent suffering.

Animal control officials have not endorsed any such measures. Their position is simple: the virus does not pose a public health threat, and interfering with wildlife generally causes more harm than good. The standing advice is to leave the animals undisturbed and let nature take its course, however grim it might seem.

What About Pet Rabbits?

For those with pet rabbits, the threat is real but manageable. Since the virus spreads via insects, the best prevention is pest control, keeping rabbits indoors during peak mosquito activity and using protective enclosures. If a pet does become infected, veterinarians can surgically remove the growths before they become malignant. Occasionally, tumours shrink on their own, but in wild rabbits, they often grow bigger year after year.

There is no cure for CRPV in wild rabbits, and the prognosis is rarely good once the growths interfere with basic functions like eating. Wildlife officials stress that the best way to help is to keep your distance, avoid feeding or attempting to “save” them, and report sightings if local authorities request it.

These infected rabbits are a reminder of how viruses can warp the natural world in unsettling ways.

Millions of people worldwide continue to experience symptoms weeks, months, or even years after an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. For more than four years, long COVID has remained one of the pandemic’s most perplexing mysteries. Yet, despite the global scale of the problem, there has been no objective way to confirm a diagnosis. Doctors have relied almost entirely on patient-reported symptoms and a process of elimination to rule out other causes.

That may be about to change. A team of researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope, and the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center has identified a potential biomarker that could offer the first measurable, laboratory-based confirmation of long COVID. Their findings, published in the journal Infection, point to a new way of detecting the lingering footprint of the virus in the body — and with it, the possibility of changing how long COVID is diagnosed, studied, and treated.

Why Diagnosing Long COVID Is Difficult?

Long COVID is not a single, uniform illness. It’s a complex, post-viral condition with more than 200 possible symptoms, ranging from crushing fatigue and brain fog to shortness of breath, chest pain, and neurological changes. According to estimates, anywhere from 15% to over 40% of people infected with COVID-19 may experience lingering symptoms, depending on which definition is used.

That lack of standardization is a huge problem. A recent study analyzing definitions from five countries — the US, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, and Puerto Rico — found wildly different prevalence rates when the same patient dataset was assessed. Without an objective test, researchers struggle to identify who truly has long COVID, making large-scale studies inconsistent and slowing the development of targeted treatments.

William Stringer, M.D., a senior author of the new study and a Lundquist Institute investigator, explains the gap: “If a patient arrives in clinic and describes the persistence of typical signs and symptoms of long COVID, 12 weeks or more after COVID-19 infection, I give them a presumptive diagnosis. But I don’t have any blood tests or biomarkers to confirm this diagnosis.”

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Traces of the Virus in Extracellular Vesicles

The new research zeroes in on extracellular vesicles (EVs) — microscopic packages released by cells to transport proteins, metabolites, and other materials throughout the body. These vesicles act like biological couriers, shuttling information from cell to cell.

Researchers collected and analyzed 56 blood samples from 14 long COVID patients over 12 weeks of aerobic exercise training, as part of an ongoing clinical trial. What they found was striking- 65 distinct protein fragments from SARS-CoV-2 inside the EVs, all originating from the virus’s Pp1ab protein.

This protein is an RNA replicase enzyme — crucial to the virus’s ability to copy itself and produce new viral particles — and is unique to SARS-CoV-2. It does not occur in uninfected human cells. “We thought that maybe if the virus is circulating or moving in the body, we should try to see if EVs are carrying those viral fragments,” says lead author Asghar Abbasi, Ph.D., of the Lundquist Institute.

Importantly, these viral peptides were detected in every patient, though not in every individual blood draw, and were absent in a separate control group using pre-pandemic EV samples. That suggests the biomarker may be specific to long COVID.

Could This Mean the Virus Lingers in the Human Body?

One of the most debated questions in long COVID research is whether the virus — or pieces of it — persist in the body long after the initial infection. Evidence has been mounting that SARS-CoV-2 may remain in certain tissues, creating “viral reservoirs” that could contribute to ongoing symptoms.

The new study supports this theory. The detection of Pp1ab fragments inside EVs hints that remnants of the virus might be traveling through the body, possibly reaching tissues without typical viral entry points, such as the brain. How this happens remains unknown. EVs may play a role in delivering these viral remnants to distant sites, potentially influencing symptoms.

Still, co-senior author Patrick Pirrotte, Ph.D., of TGen urges caution. “The molecular signal of the viral peptides was subtle and not consistently detected at every time point,” he notes. “We don’t yet know if exercise triggers the release of these proteins, if they come from a permanent reservoir, or if they’re simply leftover molecular ‘trash’ from past viral replication.”

If validated by further studies, this biomarker could be a game-changer for both clinical care and research.

For patients- An objective blood test could confirm a diagnosis and give legitimacy to those whose symptoms have been dismissed or attributed to other causes. It could also guide treatment decisions, help monitor disease progression, and potentially measure response to therapy.

For researchers- A biomarker could bring much-needed consistency to clinical trials. Right now, varying definitions and diagnostic criteria make it difficult to compare studies or determine which interventions truly work. With a measurable indicator, scientists could better select participants, study the underlying mechanisms, and test targeted treatments more effectively.

The study leaves several unanswered questions. For one, it’s not yet clear whether these viral fragments are present in people who had COVID-19 but recovered without long-term symptoms. Without that comparison, it’s hard to know if the biomarker is unique to long COVID or simply a lingering byproduct of infection.

The mechanism is also murky, are these proteins signs of ongoing viral replication somewhere in the body, or are they debris being cleared out over time? And if they are part of an active process, could targeting them improve patient outcomes?

Until these issues are resolved, the biomarker is more of a promising lead than a definitive diagnostic tool.

Why Have We Not Fully Understood Long COVID?

Long COVID remains an evolving medical challenge. Despite years of research, we still don’t fully know what causes it, why it affects some people and not others, or how to predict recovery. Without a standardized definition, prevalence estimates vary widely, and with more than 800 million COVID cases worldwide, the potential number of patients is staggering.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the US has proposed a definition that includes up to 200 symptoms and states that no single symptom can confirm or rule out a diagnosis. While comprehensive, some experts argue that narrowing the symptom list could make diagnosis more specific and practical for research and clinical use.

The researchers behind the new study are already planning follow-up work to test whether the biomarker appears in people who had COVID-19 without developing long COVID. They also aim to investigate whether its presence changes over time or in response to treatments.

If their findings hold, this biomarker could mark the start of a new chapter in the fight against long COVID — one where diagnosis is not just about listening to symptoms, but also about identifying a clear, measurable biological signal.

As Dr. Stringer puts it, “This raises the question: is this just continuing to take out the trash from the COVID-infected cell, or is this really ongoing replication someplace? That’s the mechanistic issue that needs to be resolved in future studies.”

A new study from scientists in Miami has raised a big red flag saying that heavy alcohol consumption does not just damage your liver; it could also be quietly harming your pancreas and paving the way to one of the most lethal cancers in the world. While nobody talks much about this organ, it keeps your show running. Sitting behind the stomach, the pancreas organ produces the digestive enzymes that help you break down food, as well as the hormones that regulate your blood sugar.

The fresh study, published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, sheds new light on how alcohol-induced inflammation accelerates the development of the deadly disease.

The Miami researchers discovered that alcohol, in high quantities, can damage the very pancreatic cells that make those enzymes. This injury sparks inflammation that can smoulder away until it creates precancerous lesions. Left unchecked, these can evolve into pancreatic cancer, a disease with a grim reputation.

A gene that could save the day

Not everyone who enjoys a tipple is destined for cancer. For the disease to develop, researchers found that a mutation in a gene called Ras, which controls cell growth, must also be present. But when alcohol was paired with a pro-inflammatory molecule in experiments, the effects mimicked alcohol-induced pancreatitis, complete with inflammation, lesions, and cancer.

The breakthrough? By disabling a gene called CREB, the scientists stopped both precancerous and cancerous lesions from forming. In other words, CREB seems to hold the keys to either the safe or self-destruct modes for your pancreas.

Why this matters more now

Pancreatic cancer kills over 9,000 people in the UK and more than 52,000 in the US every year. The five-year survival rate? About 10 to 12 per cent, among the lowest of any cancer. To make matters worse, cases are rising among younger people, though deaths have not yet spiked.

What makes this cancer so deadly is its silence. Symptoms rarely appear until it has already spread, and by then, treatment options are limited.

The stealthy symptoms you should not ignore

• Belly pain that radiates to your back
• Unexplained weight loss and loss of appetite
• Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes)
• Pale or floating stools, dark urine, and itching
• New or worsening diabetes
• Fatigue or weakness

By the time these appear, the disease is often in an advanced stage, which is why prevention is key.

Defining ‘heavy drinking’

The study defined heavy alcohol use as eight or more drinks per week for women and 15 or more for men. Over months and years, that adds up to a consistent assault on your pancreas.

Complications that make life harder

Pancreatic cancer isn’t just fatal; it can also cause a series of painful, exhausting complications:

• Weight loss as the body struggles to absorb nutrients
• Blocked bile ducts leading to jaundice
• Abdominal pain from tumors pressing on nerves
• Bowel obstructions
• Painful swelling in the limbs due to blood clots

Reportedly, managing these often requires procedures like stent placements or even nerve-block injections, adding more physical and emotional strain to an already heavy burden.

How to reduce the risk

• Cut back on alcohol: You do not need to go teetotal overnight, but trimming down your weekly intake could protect your pancreas.
• Quit smoking: Tobacco and alcohol together are really bad.
• Maintain a healthy weight: Extra body fat increases inflammation and strains your pancreas.
• Eat for your pancreas: Load your plate with vegetables, fruit, and whole grains, and keep processed foods to a minimum.
• Stay active: Exercise helps manage weight and lowers inflammation.