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Updated June 8th, 2021 at 12:11 IST

COVID-19: Delta strain 'more severe' as doctors study links to gangrene, hearing loss

The B.1.617.2 variant also known as the Delta variant has been reported in more than 60 countries in the last six months and has higher risk of hospitalisation.

Reported by: Apoorva Kaul
Delta Strain
IMAGE: PTI/Geralt/Pixabay | Image:self
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Amid India's battle with the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, doctors are investigating whether the new strain is more infectious than other virus variants. The doctors in India are examining hearing impairment, severe gastric issues and blood clots linked with the variant, reported Bloomberg. The symptoms, which are not mostly seen in COVID-19 patients, have been leading to gangrene and linked to the Delta variant. 

Delta variant more infectious

The B.1.617.2 variant also known as the Delta variant has been reported in more than 60 countries in the last six months. Early evidence suggests that the now-dominant strain has a higher risk of hospitalisation. The vaccines are less effective on the Delta variant and it is highly infectious, reported Bloomberg. Ganesh Manudhane, a Mumbai cardiologist who has treated patients for thrombotic complications told Bloomberg that some patients develop microthrombi, or small blood clots, so severe that they led affected tissue to die and develop gangrene. Abdul Ghafur, an infectious disease physician at the Apollo hospital in Chennai, while speaking to Bloomberg, said that they need to analyse if the new "clinical presentations" are linked to B.1.617 or not. He added that the virus has been changing and has become "unpredictable". 

In the first study of India's second COVID-19 wave, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and scientists of INSACOG zeroed down the Delta variant as the cause behind the surge. The study stated that the variant was primarily responsible for the surge in cases with high transmissibility of 50 per cent more than the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7). Matt Hancock, UK Health Secretary said that the Delta variant (B1.617.2) of the novel coronavirus that first originated in India, is about 40 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha or the Kent variant of concern and is now the dominant variant in the UK. This would make the June 21 roadmap of unlocking Britain more challenging, he added. In a televised address with Sky News on June 6, Hancock stressed, "That means that it is more difficult, obviously, to manage this virus with the with the new Delta variant." 

IMAGE: PTI/Geralt/Pixabay

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Published June 8th, 2021 at 12:11 IST

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