Current vaccines may not be effective against Delta variant

Bengaluru : Public Health England (PHE) in its latest risk assessment of the variants of the coronavirus has stated that 61% of the sequenced samples are of Delta variant.

In India most of the cases are from the Sublineage of double mutant - B.1.617.2 (also known as variant delta) which was a new variant first found in India in December 20.

The Delta variant has been labelled as a Variant-Of-Concern (VOC) by the WHO because it has significantly increased transmissibility.

Dr Vishal Rao, Dean, Centre for Academic Research, HCG Cancer Hospital remarked, "Had we picked the strain and mounted our response earlier, we could have saved more lives." Rao stated that the second wave impact and fatalities is proof of the same.

A couple of days ago, Deputy Chief Minister C.N Ashwath Narayan discussed genomic surveillance of Covid strains with Dr Rao along with Dr Vamsi Veeramachaneni, chief scientific officer with Life Strand Sciences, and Rohan Pais, COO with Life Strand Sciences, following a report submitted by them on genomic surveillance of COVID patients from Bengaluru showing the new double mutant variant sub lineage B.1.617.2

Ashwath Narayan said that it was important to carry out genomic surveillance to identify emerging strains early so that scientists can establish the transmissibility rates of the new strains, assess vaccine protectiveness, verify RT-PCR kit performance, and study clinical presentation.

The result of the study suggested that the majority of the patients were affected by the new delta variant 617.2. "This is a genuine cause of worry. While we were aware the second wave had to do with new variants. This comes as tangible proof that the majority affected are harboring new variants.

Not only this strain, we know from Gear-19 data that there are 8572 variants that have been found in India. We definitely need to ascertain which one of these is capable of creating new waves, it's Clinical implications, transmissibility and fatality.

Our public health responses need to be directed using a real time mapping of genomic surveillance that will help to mount a more robust public health response," Dr Rao explained. Were all the samples you have tested ICU cases? Were all the patients from Karnataka?

He told The Hans India that all samples were from patients in Bengaluru who were symptomatic but not in ICU. The next phase is planned to look into ICU patients.

Dr Rao has also commented that mapping of vaccine efficiency is essential since the virus is rapidly mutating and creating new resistant variants.

"We know that many of these will lead to vaccine escape mutations leading to us either requiring a booster or may be a completely new vaccine. For eg the Pfizer vaccine may not be very effective against the 617.2 variant.

The vaccines currently available have been made using the original Wuhan strain. With new variants we will need to constantly map the vaccine escape mutations that may come up, thus making the current vaccines less effective," he explained.