Covid-19 and The New Variants
As we expect scientifically, over time, a new strain developed from the original virus through a genetic process called a mutation. new strains may become less pathogenic, but if we look back to history, we have a high number of viruses replicating and mutating, resulting in a more infectious strain were difficult to compete with using treatment already active against the original one.
Our planet has been suffering since December 2019, facing the Covid-19 pandemic. Scientists have discovered many variants. the CDC considers four of them as “variants of concerns”.
The CDC defines “ variant for which there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), a significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures.*
“Variants of concerns “ of Covid-19 are Alpha (B.1.1.7), Gamma (P.1),Beta (B.1.351) ,and Delta (B.1.617.2) .
The most concerning variants are Alpha and Delta due to several reasons as follows :
Alpha (B.1.1.7) strain was first identified in the United Kingdom in late 2020. This variant is more transmissible than previous strains. The mechanism of mutation in this variant is a deletion in the spike protein at amino acids 69–70 (del 69–70) *.
Delta (B.1.617.2), was first identified in India in December 2020. the most highly transmissible of the variants so far and may cause more severe illness. Like other variants have been discovered. Indian variant is becoming the most dominant strain worldwide.
With the huge impact of Covid-19 on the world, evolving of new strains while we are fighting the existed strains represents a burden on the health care system. A lot of questions have been raised to minds regarding the main differences between delta and others. Studies have shown that alpha and delta variants are highly spreading — the Delta variant, which causes severe illness as well.
Fortunately, those strains appeared after the vaccine was developed. the good news here is the available vaccines are still effective for the new variants. some clinical studies showed the need for intensive treatment compared with previous variants. So, what about precautions to encounter the infectious characteristics of the delta variant. The CDC recommends taking the vaccine and avoiding traveling to high delta prevalent countries, and continuing with coronavirus safety precautions. Additional concerns, age variation play a role where earlier strains were less affected children. Recently the number of infected children gets high in sync with delta variants.
Since the beginning of COVID-19 early this year, Bio Union has been working with hospitals and research organizations in the US, EU, and Taiwan to define actions to support healthcare services during the COVID-19 response.
The data we collected will also be used to develop AI/machine learning software to better assess the risk of COVID-19 patients recovering at home.
Our Smart Garments can continuously measure respiration effort in addition to cardiac activity, which provides unique data to understand the evolution of the disease and its effects on lung function.
Prepared by: Jacky Ho & Yahya Laghbi
References:
SARS-CoV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions , CDC.
COVID-19: Epidemiology, virology, and prevention , Kenneth McIntosh, MD.
