Delta is spreading ‘wildfire’ as doctors study whether it makes patients sicker

[ad_1]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With a new wave of COVID-19 infections fueled by delta species hitting countries around the world, disease experts are scrambling to find out whether the latest version of the coronavirus is making people — essentially unvaccinated — sicker than before. .

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that Delta, which was first identified in India and is now dominant worldwide, is “potentially more dangerous” than previous versions of the virus, according to an internal report published Friday.

The agency cited research in Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that people with delta type were more likely to be hospitalized than patients earlier in the pandemic.

In interviews with Reuters, disease experts said all three papers indicated greater risk of the variant, but study groups are limited and the results have not yet been reviewed by outside experts. Doctors treating patients with delta have described a faster onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and in many areas, there is an overall increase in serious cases.

But experts said more work is needed to compare results between larger numbers of individuals in epidemiological studies to see if one variant causes more serious disease than another.

“It is difficult to quantify the increase in risk and population bias,” said Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom.

In addition, the exceptional rate of transmission in the Delta is also likely to contribute to a greater number of severe cases reaching hospitals, experts said.

Deltas are as contagious as chickenpox and are much more contagious than the common cold or the flu, according to the CDC report.

Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in San Diego, said the clearest indication that the variant might cause more severe disease comes from the Scotland study, which found that Delta nearly doubled the risk of hospitalization compared to the previous version. Read more

The majority of hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus in the United States occur in people who have not been vaccinated. But there is evidence that the injections are less effective in people with weakened immune systems, including the elderly.

For individuals who have been vaccinated, or otherwise healthy, the odds are that if they contract COVID-19, they will only have mild or no symptoms, said Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic.

“But they can pass it on to family members and others who may not be so lucky,” Poland said. “We have to be vaccinated and hidden or else, for the fourth time now, we’re taking on another mutation and worse variants will emerge from it.”

full flame

The rate of severe disease, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, is once again straining health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

“This is like a wildfire, this is not a raging fire,” said Dr. Michelle Baron, chief medical officer for infection prevention and control at UCHealth in Colorado.

Barron said research from China indicating that the delta variant replicates faster and generates 1,000 times more viruses in the body than the original strain highlights the greatest risk for this new wave.

“It’s hard to tell if they’d be sicker because of the delta variant or if they’d be sicker anyway,” she said.

Other doctors said that patients with Delta disease appear to get sick more quickly, and in some cases develop more severe symptoms than those treated earlier in the pandemic.

“We’re seeing more patients needing oxygen sooner,” said Dr. Benjamin Barlow, chief medical officer of American Family Care, a 28-state chain of urgent care clinics.

At his clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, Barlow said about 20% of patients tested positive for COVID-19, compared to 2-3% a few weeks ago. Patients are evaluated at that time for potential hospitalization and oxygen support.

The delta variant is more contagious and leads to faster onset of disease — especially for the unvaccinated, said David Montefiore, director of the AIDS Vaccine Research and Development Laboratory at Duke University Medical Center.

“Frankly, there is a risk coming from this alternative that is a little bit more severe,” Montefiore said in a webcast last week. “Not only is it easier to cast, it makes you sicker.”

(Additional reporting by Dina Beasley in Los Angeles, Josephine Mason in London, and Julie Steenhuisen in Chicago.) Editing by Michael Gershberg and Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.

[ad_2]