Los Angeles
With a new wave of COVID-19 infections by the delta variant striking countries around the world, pathologists are scrambling to know if the latest version of the coronavirus is making people Predominantly uninfected – sicker than before.
According to an internal report made public on Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the delta, first identified in India and now dominant around the world, may be “more severe” than older versions of the virus. is likely to.
The agency cited research in Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that people infected with the delta variant were more likely to be hospitalized than patients with the first pandemic.
In interviews with Reuters, disease experts said the three papers suggest a higher risk than the variant, but the study population is limited and the findings have not yet been reviewed by outside experts.
Doctors treating patients infected with Delta described a more rapid onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and an overall increase in severe cases in many areas.
But experts said more work is needed to compare outcomes in epidemiological studies to larger numbers of individuals to determine whether one type causes more severe disease than another.
“It is difficult to overestimate the increase in severity and population bias,” said Lawrence Young, a virologist at the UK’s Warwick Medical School.
In addition, it is likely that the extraordinary rate of delta transmission is also contributing to the high number of serious cases coming to hospitals, experts said.
According to the CDC report, Delta is just as contagious as chickenpox and much more contagious than the common cold or flu.
Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego, said the clear indication that the variant may cause more severe disease comes from a Scottish study that found Delta treated the hospital with the earlier version.
Nearly doubled the risk of being admitted. Most hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus in the United States are occurring in people who have not been vaccinated.
But there is evidence that shots are less effective in people with compromised immune systems, including the elderly.
Mayo Clinic infectious disease specialist Dr. Gregory Poland said that for vaccinated, otherwise healthy individuals, if they contract COVID-19, they will experience only asymptomatic or mild disease.
“But they can pass it on to family members and others who may not be so lucky,” Poland said.
“We must be vaccinated and masked or we will, for the fourth time, have another surge and it will turn worse.”
Serious illness rates, especially in areas where vaccination rates are low, are again stressing healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
“It’s like a wildfire, it’s not a smoldering campfire,” said Dr. Michelle Barone, senior medical director of infection prevention and control at UCHealth in Colorado.
It’s all over the flames right now. “
Barron said research from China shows the delta variant replicates much faster and produces 1,000 times more virus in the body than the original strain, highlighting the greatest danger of this new wave.
“It’s hard to tell if they are more sick because of the delta version or if they would have been sicker anyway,” she said.
Other doctors said patients infected with Delta get sick more quickly, and in some cases with more severe symptoms, than those they treated earlier in the pandemic.—Agencies
