New Delhi: Mumbai recorded the first death of a fully vaccinated person last week due to the delta plus version of COVID-19. The 63-year-old woman who had taken both doses of the vaccine died on July 27, but state government officials only learned on August 11 that she was infected with the Delta Plus variant.
The matter came up in the genome sequencing report, news agency PTI quoted a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official as last week.
Delta Plus is known to be highly contagious, and the government declared it a type of concern (VOC) in India in June after 22 cases were detected across the country.
As of August 17, Maharashtra alone had 76 cases of the Delta Plus variant.
According to experts, the Delta Plus strains behave similarly to the Delta variants.
A study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Chennai now states that the delta variant can infect both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, although it reduces mortality among the former group .
What is Delta Plus?
Delta, which was first recognized in India in October 2020, is now a VOC globally. The variant, which is currently prevalent around the world, was a primary driver for the devastating second wave of Covid in India.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that the delta variant causes more infections and is “more than 2x as contagious” as early forms of SARS-CoV-2.
People infected with this type are reported to have a viral load of 1,000 times higher.
Delta has already spread so much that it now has several sub-types, called ‘delta plus’.
Delta or B.1.617.2 previously mutated to B.1.617.2.1 – or AY.1. It now has a total of 13 sub-lineages from AY.1 to AY.12 – and the latest, AY.3.1.
According to global experts, the delta plus variant has an additional mutation in the spike protein which is also found in beta and gamma variants.
“Delta plus is the first to be reported in India, but the type of mutation was reported in beta-like variants,” according to Dr Insi Yildirim, vaccinologist and Yale Medicine Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist.
The K417N, additional mutation, “affects the spike protein that the virus needs to infect cells”, she says, and is the main target for vaccines.
Declaring Delta Plus as a VOC in India, the health ministry had said that it spreads more easily, captures your lung cells more effectively, and can be used to treat monoclonal antibodies and virus infections. May be resistant to other therapies.
Delta Plus and Vaccinations
Recognizing that the “highly permeable” delta variant is becoming a major strain worldwide, the World Health Organization said The increase increases the “urgency to vaccinate large numbers of vulnerable people”.
Most of the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use globally claim to be effective against delta, and experts emphasize that the risk from all delta variants is significantly lower after vaccination.
One Public Health England Analysis (Preprint) said in May this year that studies have shown that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are 88 percent and 60 percent effective, respectively, against symptomatic disease and 96 percent and 93 percent effective against hospitalization, respectively. Huh. Participants tracked for studies who were vaccinated with both doses.
In June, Moderna also reported that the study (not yet peer-reviewed) found its vaccine to be effective against Delta, with only “a slight decrease in neutralizing titers” compared to its effectiveness against the original version. Keeping in mind.
However, there are additional concerns about the Delta Plus. recently Study (Pre-print) Researchers in Boston said transmission of the delta variant AY.3 can occur among fully vaccinated people, even in the controlled environment of an inpatient medical-surgical ward.
“It remains to be determined whether the Delta version AY.3 lineage is more permeable than the Delta version B.1.617.2,” the paper said. “Our findings raise the concern that without rigorous risk mitigation, transmission of the delta variant and the delta sub-lineage will occur more frequently than the former, less transmissible variants, even in nosocomial (hospital-generated) vaccinated individuals.”
In an interview with The Times of India, Vinod Scaria, who is working with the Maharashtra Public Health Department on the genome surveillance project mentioned above, said that the immediate priority should be vaccination of the entire population.
He stressed that no emerging sub-lineage “so far can completely escape immunity due to previous infections or vaccines”.
Meanwhile, the Joe Biden administration has recommended that people in the US who received Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna (mRNA) vaccines should get a booster shot eight months after the second dose. This consultation was based on the spread of Delta and CDC studies This suggests that the protection offered by vaccines is declining.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the plan, the boosters will be available starting Sept. 20.
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