The ‘Deltakron’ variant has raised concerns amidst increasing cases of corona virus infection in many countries of the world. That being said, this variant has the features of Delta and Omicron. Experts say that it is necessary to keep a close watch on such hybrid variants, they can turn into supervirus by finding better things of both the formats.
According to media reports, Scott Nuyen, a bioinformatician at the Public Health Laboratory in Washington, says that it seems that it is making better use of variant combinations. He said, ‘These recombinant variants can give better information about how the virus is going to evolve next time.’
The DeltaCron variant was first found in patients with COVID-19 in Cyprus. Nuyen found that each virus present in the sample had genes for two different variants. Scientists call this condition ‘recombinant’.
World Health Organization doctor Mike Ryan explains, ‘Recombination is when two viruses infect the same person or animal and what happens after that… effectively the two viruses share a large amount of genetic information. And on the other hand effectively a new virus can be created… That’s how we created the influenza pandemic.’ He further said that the more the virus spreads, the more opportunities it will get to change.
Experts say that the recombinant virus should not be a cause for panic. However, he also says that it is very important to keep a close watch on them to get information about the rise in corona virus.
Nuyen said, ‘At the beginning of the epidemic, we were all hoping that SARS-CoV-2 would not mutate much.’ He told, ‘But this virus surprised us from all sides. So I think these recombinant variants can give information about how the virus is going to evolve further. He said that this can also tell how soon the next variant of concern will come out.
Virologist Simone-Laurier said, ‘This is not a new concern.’ He informed, ‘The surface of viruses is very much like Omicron, so as the body recognizes Omicron, it will also recognize it.’