The Delta variant of covid-19, which was detected for the first time in India and would have been responsible for the second great wave of infections in the Asian country, has set off alarms in the medical and scientific world.
This strain of the coronavirus has been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern in the world, a classification that is given to some of these when they meet at least one of three characteristics.
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Thus, the variants of special attention can have mutations that make them have a higher contagion rate, mutations that cause more severe manifestations of the disease or mutations that reduce the effectiveness of vaccines or previous immunity against the virus.
(Read also: These are the symptoms of the delta variant of covid-19)
Precisely, the Delta variant meets one of these characteristics. As explained by Carlos Álvarez, infectologist and WHO designated for clinical studies against covid-19 in Colombia, the first evidence and studies of this variant indicate that has a greater contagion capacity if compared to the original variant of the virus in Wuhan.
According to Álvarez, “while the original variant could infect two to three, this variant can infect between five and eight times”.
Although the first evidences indicate that this variant is transmitted faster, the data do not allow to conclude yet that it has a greater impact on the severity clinical symptoms of the patients, that is, those infected with the Delta variant have much more severe symptoms of the disease than other infected people.
(You may be interested in: Delta plus: the new variant of the coronavirus that worries the world)
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The Delta variant of covid-19 has set off alarms in the medical and scientific world.
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Jaiver Nieto Álvarez / ETCE
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Many details of the Delta variant are still under analysis by the scientific world. But there is one element in particular that experts try to identify and that is whether this variant compromises the effectiveness of the vaccines that are already being applied on the planet.
Therefore, they are making rapid progress in determining how well vaccines work against this particular variant. This is what is known so far.
Its impact on vaccines
However, a preprint by Public Health England, an agency of the UK Department of Health, reviewed the effectiveness of the vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca to protect against symptomatic disease and hospitalization in cases of Delta variant infection.
So far, it has been found that single dose the effectiveness of the vaccine against this variant decreases by a small percentage.
Most importantly, however, the analyzes also found that after two doses, vaccines have a level very similar and elevated protection against the Delta variant than they have with another variant such as the Alpha (from the United Kingdom).
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“The effectiveness of the vaccine against symptomatic disease variant B.1.617.2 (Delta) It’s similar after two doses compared to variant B.1.1.7 (Alpha), dominant in the UK”Reads the Public Health England website.
It was found, for example, that after two doses, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has a 96 percent effectiveness against hospitalization for the Delta variant, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 92 percent effective against hospitalization after the two doses.
Vaccines offer significant protection against hospitalization for the Delta variant
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Thus, the vaccines, according to what the analyzes are showing, maintain levels of protection against this variant.
“These critically important findings confirm that vaccines offer a meaningful protection against hospitalization for the Delta variant. Vaccines are the most important tool we have against covid-19. Thanks to them, thousands of lives have already been saved”Said Mary Ramsay, head of immunization at Public Health England.
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Regarding other vaccines, such as Moderna or Janssen, there are still not enough analyzes to evaluate their effectiveness against the Delta variant.
The truth is that this strain has already spread to more than 92 countries. In Latin America, for example, it has already been identified in countries such as Peru, Mexico and Argentina.
And although this variant is still the object of study and analysis, the way to protect itself from its contagion remains the same used in more than a year of pandemic, that is, through biosecurity measures and, now, with the application of vaccines in a timely manner.
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