The Delta Plus Variant: A Greater Threat To Children

– Dr. Rajan Verma, Medical Director, Lab operations, Oncquest Laboratories Ltd.

The christening ‘delta’ refers to a variant of the SARS-CoV2 and the ‘plus’ indicates that the strain is not so different from the original Delta variant and has one key addition which is the K417N mutation. That is nothing but an alteration in the virus’s spike protein. New variants land on our doorstep when the genetic code of the virus gets mutated.

Some mutations of the virus may make it weaker whereas some may even make it incredibly strong, as is the case with the new Delta variant. The Indian government has already labelled the Delta Plus strain as a ‘variant of concern’. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a ‘variant of concern’ may display any of the following characteristics:

• Increased transmissibility or damaging change in the COVID-19 epidemiology
• Increased virulence or change in the symptoms caused by the virus
• Decreased effectiveness of the public healthcare measures and other precautions enforced for social welfare

The question we are all looking to answer is ‘how much worse is the new variant than the original Delta variant?’ Deemed as hyper-infectious, the Delta and the Delta Plus variants have triggered a series of new breakouts, lockdowns, and restrictions. Here are some facts which may help one understand the impending threat of the Delta Plus strain to children:

1. The Delta variant is significantly more contagious than the previous variants. Data indicates that it is 40-60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant of the US, which itself was 50% more transmissible than the first detected strain in Wuhan.
2. The Delta Plus variant is ‘at least as dangerous’ as the other variants and is likely to be more resilient. Studies show that patients infected with this variant are twice as likely to be hospitalised than those down with the Alpha variant.
3. The Delta variants may also manifest in our bodies as routine symptoms like a common cold, headache, sore throat, and running nose, thus leading people to unknowingly spread the virus faster.
4. The Delta variant has grabbed a 20% share of the new cases present in the US, a number that is doubling every fortnight. The Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) has issued a warning that it may be well on its way to becoming the dominant strain in the country.
5. For those partially vaccinated, one jab out of two does not offer sufficient protection against the Delta variant, which means that one must be extremely careful even after getting partially inoculated.

The above five facts clearly indicate that unvaccinated groups are the most vulnerable to the Delta strain of COVID-19 and that leaves only one stratum prone to the disease – the children below 18 years of age for whom vaccination slots haven’t even opened in India. This gaping hole is already driving the upsurges in several countries, especially in schools.

Both variants – the Delta and the Delta Plus, have what is called a ‘fitness advantage’ over all other variants of COVID-19. This means that the strain possesses characteristics that allow it to pullulate much faster than the other variants. The variant with a fitness advantage is highly likely to become the dominant strain throughout the world.

More research and data are still required to determine how exactly the Delta Plus variant will behave in different anatomies of different age groups. But one thing is clear – all precautions must be exercised irrespective of how well vaccinated one is until herd immunity is reached, and better control is gained over the spread of the virus. Premature relaxation of restrictions could prove to be disastrous.