A new corona variant has recently appeared in some countries. It is a cross between the Delta and the Omicron variant.
Berlin – The Corona pandemic is after two years* still not finished. There is now a cross between the Delta variant* and the Omicron variant*. Unofficially this combination is called Deltakron. Such variants have already been found in several countries, as the German Press Agency (dpa) announced. But how dangerous is she?
Crossing the two variants is said to be as pathogenic as Delta and as contagious as Omicron. At the beginning of the year, researchers from Cyprus reported the detection of a combination of the two Sars-CoV-2 variants Delta and Omicron. Apparently, however, this was a contamination in the laboratory. But meanwhile there are increasing reports of Deltakron cases.
Deltakron: Corona crossing from the Omikron and the Delta variant
The World Health Organization (WHO) is observing a so-called recombinant consisting of one subtype each of delta (AY.4) and omicron (BA.1). The technical abbreviation for this is XD. First samples come from France* and are from January. This is reported by the German Press Agency. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) speaks of a confirmed case for Germany. It also refers to further descriptions in France, Denmark and the Netherlands.
So far, according to the WHO, there are no signs of good propagation. In addition, the observation does not mean that XD is worrying. So far I have coronavariant* has not yet received an official name. However, the WHO does not use the term Deltakron. For experts, the expression is very imprecise and therefore not suitable. Most recently, the term was not only used for XD, but also for other mixed forms of delta and omicron. It is “not a helpful term, since it is unclear which recombinant is meant and the term conveys an alarmism for which there is no good reason,” said Richard Neher, head of the research group Evolution of Viruses and Bacteria at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel .
The British virologist Tom Peacock recently clarified on Twitter that the mixed form XD discovered in France differs from the in Great Britain* described, which is called XF. Neher explained that XD is the only variant in which the omicron spike protein is “more or less perfectly” inserted into a delta genome.
New Corona variant: Deltakron is a mixture of Omikron and Delta
“It was foreseeable that there would be such recombinants of Sars-CoV-2. This can always happen when two variants are circulating at the same time: if a person is infected with delta and omicron at the same time, for example, viral genetic material can be exchanged in a double-infected host cell,” explained virologist Friedemann Weber from Justus Liebig University To water. But that is considered relatively rare.
But could Deltakron make the corona pandemic worse? “It would be wrong to assume that such recombinants are necessarily horror variants that combine the worst characteristics of the original variants,” Weber said. The predominant omicron subtype BA.2 is already as contagious in Germany as measles. Therefore, the virus can hardly grow. “Although omicron is often associated with milder disease progression, it remains to be seen to what extent this also applies to older unvaccinated people.” Of the recombinants observed so far, perhaps only XD is a little more worrying, as the virologist Peacock wrote.
Deltakron: A confirmed Corona case in Germany
But how do you deal with the new Corona variant? “In some cases, such recombinants have only appeared in limited outbreaks. Others seem to be increasing linearly at the moment, but fortunately not yet exponentially. This has to be observed and taken seriously,” summarized the virologist Christian Drosten* summarized the situation in a Zeit interview on Wednesday (03/23/2022).
A complete genetic analysis is only carried out in Germany for a very small proportion of all positive findings, as dpa announced. At full capacity, the laboratories even sequenced less than five percent of the samples for capacity reasons, said the virologist Sandra Ciesek from the University Hospital in Frankfurt*. Therefore, rare virus variants are only discovered by chance. (smü/dpa) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
#combination #corona #variants #dangerous