Cyprus has discovered ‘Deltacron’ a variant of Covid that combines omicron and delta.
KEY POINTS
- A researcher in Cyprus has discovered a strain of the coronavirus that combines the delta and omicron variant, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
- Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, called the strain “deltacron”.
- It is still too early to say if there are more cases of the strain or what impacts it could have.
A researcher in Cyprus has discovered a strain of the coronavirus that combines the delta and omicron variant, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.
Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, called the strain “deltacron”, due to its omicron-like genetic signatures in delta genomes, Bloomberg said.
So far, Kostrikis and his team have found 25 cases of the virus, according to the report. It is still too early to say if there are more cases of the strain or what impacts it could have.
“We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail” against the two dominant strains, delta and omicron, Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV on Friday.
He believes omicron will overtake deltacron as well, he added. The researchers sent their results this week to GISAID, an international database that tracks viruses, according to Bloomberg.
The deltacron variant comes as omicron continues its rapid spread across the world, causing an increase in Covid-19 cases. The United States is reporting a seven-day average of more than 600,000 new cases per day, according to a CNBC analysis Friday of data from Johns Hopkins University.
That’s a 72% increase from the previous week and a pandemic record.Also cases of FLURONA (Discussed below)are increasing day by day.
–What is “FLURONA”? Coronavirus and influenza co-infections reported as omicron flare-ups.
New year, new term for coronavirus? Many people around the world have kicked off 2022 by seeking more information on “flurona,” after Israel reported two young pregnant women tested positive for both the coronavirus and the flu.
Doctors have long worried about the potential impact of a ‘twindemia’ – flu cases on the rise as covid-19 cases threaten to overwhelm hospitals – and have called on people to get the flu shot and the coronavirus.
On the other hand, ‘flurona’ refers to when a person has both respiratory infections at the same time – which health officials say is a possibility as cases of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus are increasing this winter across the world. Here’s what we know so far.
Although the word is relatively new and growing in popularity, cases of influenza and coronavirus co-infections are not. And flurona is not a separate disease, but refers to when a person became infected with both viruses. Cases of Flurona have been detected in countries like the United States, Israel, Brazil, the Philippines and Hungary, some even before the term was coined.
Cases of co-infection were reported in the United States almost two years ago, according to a report from Atlantic. In February 2020, a man entered a New York City hospital with a severe cough and fever. At the time, the city had not officially reported any cases of the coronavirus. The patient tested positive for the flu and was subsequently tested for the coronavirus. Weeks later, the results confirmed that he and three members of his family had contracted both viruses.
WHERE ARE CASE REPORTED?
There have been other recent events in the United States. A Houston teenager spent Christmas Day isolating himself in his bedroom after contracting the coronavirus and the flu at the same time. Alec Zierlein, who had been vaccinated against the coronavirus but not the flu, was also tested for strep throat, but the results confirmed he only had the first two infections, which he described as being “like a mild cold”.
After his diagnosis, Zierlein told ABC News he was unaware that the coronavirus and the flu could “stack up” and that he would, in the future, be vaccinated against the flu as a measure of precaution.
WHAT ARE SYMPTOMS ?
The coronavirus and the flu are respiratory infections, which can cause similar symptoms such as fever, cough, fatigue, runny nose, sore throat, and diarrhea, as well as muscle and body pain.
Both infections can be fatal, although the severity of each diagnosis depends largely on the individual’s immune system. Health workers, the elderly, and people with underlying health conditions are at higher risk for each virus. Is it the common cold, the flu, or the covid?
The World Health Organization notes that viruses are also transmitted in similar ways, through droplets and aerosols that can be transmitted by coughing, sneezing, talking, singing or breathing – which is why masking to protect others is widely encouraged by the authorities. Although the word is relatively new and growing in popularity, cases of influenza and coronavirus co-infections are not. And flurona is not a separate disease.