WHO Confirms Deltacron Circulating In Europe: What Experts Say About Recombinant Virus

Although Deltacron infections have been found in different locations around the world, the exact number of cases is not clearly known.

A hybrid of the Omicron and Delta variants, dubbed Deltacron by some, has slowly begun circulating in Europe, with cases detected in France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in a press briefing held on Wednesday.

However, there are very low levels of this detection, stated Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, COVID-19 technical lead at the WHO, during the briefing.

She continued, "This is something that is expected given a large amount of circulation, the intense circulation we saw with both omicron and delta. There is very good surveillance in many countries right now and given the sheer number changes in omicron, it was much easier for researchers, scientists and public health professional, people who are studying genome to be able to detect this recombinant."

"We have not seen any change in the epidemiology and severity with this recombinant but there are many studies underway," she added.

Recombinant virus expected

Explaining about the emergence of this Delta-Omicron recombinant virus, Kerkhove said, "Unfortunately, we do expect to see recombinants because this is what viruses do, they change over time. We are seeing intense level of circulation; we see this virus impact animals with the possibility of affecting humans again."

"This pandemic is far from over, not only we need to focus on saving people's lives and reducing severity and deaths, but we also have to focus on reducing the spread. We cannot allow this virus to spread at such an intense level, it doesn't mean locking people down or in their homes, it means using simple tools and a layered approach. So, it's really critical that we have testing, continue with sequencing and have good geographical representation of sequencing around the world, and that the systems that have been put in place for surveillance, sequencing and testing be reinforced," she added.

Pls also see here where we talk about the possibility of recombinants of #SARSCoV2. This is to be expected, especially w intense circulation of #omicron & delta. @WHO TagVE is tracking & discussing.🙏@GISAID, 🌍🌎🌏 collaborations & science ICYMI: https://t.co/jqduC6s3p5https://t.co/oQ6AAGjegy Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) March 8, 2022

A viral recombination is not unique to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Influenza viruses recombine all the time, this is very common, according to William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, as quoted by Health.

Deltacron found in these countries

The Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), a group of international scientists who share virus data, has also confirmed the emergence of Deltacron, and provided data from France's Pasteur Institute on its website. The group stated that the Delta-Omicron recombinant virus has been circulating since early January 2022.

A study recently published on research site MedRxiv also indicated detection of potential cases of Deltacron in the United States.

Researchers at the San Mateo, California-headquartered lab Helix, which is supposedly working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in tracking COVID-19, recently sequenced 29,719 positive coronavirus samples collected between Nov. 22 to Feb. 13. They found two infections involving different versions of Deltacron.

Philippe Colson of IHU Mediterranee Infection in Marseille, France, and his team also described three patients in France infected with a SARS-CoV-2 variant that has the combination of the spike protein from an Omicron variant and the "body" of a Delta variant.

When two or more variants co-circulate during same periods of time and in the same geographical areas, it creates opportunities for recombination between the two variants, Colson explained.

Although Deltacron infections have been found in different locations around the world, the exact number of cases is not clearly known.