During today's CNCAV meeting, Romanian Government officials reconfirmed the fact that the Delta strain of the Coronavirus represents a major threat to Romanians who are not immunized with the vaccines currently available all over the world.
Below you will find the explanations on how the antibodies generated by the cure offer protection after passing through the disease following infection with an initial variant of the Coronavirus, but also what kind of protection is offered by the antibodies generated by vaccination.
"At the moment, the main concern, at the global level, is related to the possibility and the greatly increased probability of the spread of infection with the Delta viral variant. What makes this strain so concerning? There are several elements related, on the one hand, to contagiousness and infectivity, the data are as clear as possible that show us an increased capacity to transmit the infection with the Delta variant, as a result of the fact that it binds very easily to the receptors, it multiplies to a much greater extent and, as such, the amount of virus in the respiratory secretions is increased.
Basically, that basal case reproduction factor, in the case of the Delta variant compared to the Alfa variant and the initial Wuhan variant, is much higher. A positive case of infection with the Delta variant can generate up to 6-7 secondary cases of the disease, as a case of infection with the Alpha variant, with the variant, with the British strain, which is currently dominant, can generate about 3 -4 secondary cases, and the infection with the original strain from Wuhan generates about two secondary cases of the disease.
Also, another peculiarity of the Delta viral variant is related to the ability to escape from the protection of the immune response, especially in people who have passed through the disease, with various other viral variants, in about 20-50% of cases the people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 with other viral variants, in particular with the original variant from Wuhan, they are not sufficiently well protected against the risk of re-infection.
As such, everything that we see at the moment in South Africa, but also in other countries, like India, we see that in South Africa, for example, a country with a vaccination coverage rate below 5%, we have in at the moment an important evolution in the number of cases, practically a third important wave of illnesses is registered, this being caused by the infection with the Delta strain, in the conditions where the first wave of illnesses was caused by the Wuhan strain, the second by the South African strain and the third by the Delta strain, meaning that a large proportion of those people are reinfectioners.
That's why, looking at the scientific data recently published, just last week, this shows us the neutralizing activity of antibodies from people who have gone through natural disease on this strain. What we know at this point is that the antibody activity, the neutralizing activity of the deconvalescent serum, meaning people who have gone through the disease, is about two times lower than the Alpha strain, about 5,5 times lower than the the Delta strain and about 8 times less compared to the Beta strain, the South African strain. Basically, getting through the disease doesn't protect us well enough against the risk of getting sick again with this Delta strain."
