Expert dismiss es Flurona, Deltacron

CLAIMS of Flurona and Deltacron have been made but the local expert who assisted in discovering the Beta variant has rubbished them and broke down the variant found in France.

Richard Lessells is an infectious disease specialist with the Kwazulu-natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp) team.

The Krisp team was the first to sequence and identify the Beta variant that drove the country’s second wave and exerted global dominance.

Now there are claims from various countries that they have experienced cases of Deltacron and Flurona.

Lessells said Flurona was a nonsense term that was coined to describe a situation when someone was infected with Covid-19 and the influenza virus at the same time.

“This phenomenon where someone might be infected with two respiratory viruses concurrently is actually not that unusual as respiratory viruses will often circulate in the community at the same time,” he said.

However, Lessells said there was more influenza circulating now than at other times during the Covid-19 pandemic, so, we would expect to occasionally see cases where both viruses were detected.

“There is no evidence that this makes people sicker so it is not something people should specifically worry about,” he said.

Deltacron was a portmanteau of the Delta and Omicron variants that occurred in Cyprus, Greece.

Lessells said genomic sequencing suggested that some sections of the genetic code looked like Omicron and others looked like Delta.

“We know that recombination can occur with coronaviruses but so far it hasn’t been a major feature of the pandemic.

“What was initially flagged as a possible recombinant in Cyprus actually turned out to be a result of contamination in the lab,” said Lessells.

He said due to the fact that a batch of samples for sequencing might include Omicron and Delta samples, contamination during the sequencing process could result in a sequence that looks like a recombinant.

“However, a more detailed analysis, as in this case, can show that it was a result of contamination,” he said.

Recently news circulated about a variant in France, called B.1.640, and labelled variant under monitoring (VUM) by the World Health Organization (WHO), but Lessells said it was not a concern for the country.

“It was first detected in September last year and was designated as a VUM by the WHO on November 22.

“Another example of a VUM is the C.1.2 that we were tracking in the country before the arrival of Omicron,” he said.

According to global data the B.1.640 was not spreading widely anywhere in the world, and in France, Omicron was becoming the dominant variant while the country was exiting the fourth wave.