COVID-19: Delta Variant

Posted on

Since 2019, COVID-19 has become a significant part of our lives. As we try to adjust to our new way of life, our knowledge surrounding covid-19 and how we must adapt and innovate as a company significantly grows. Science is amazing! and the fact that we have access to so many resources and tools helping us understand and develop solutions to beat this virus just goes to show how far we have come as a society with technology, however sometimes we can become overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information around the COVID-19 topic, and it can become hard to digest, especially when we hear about new scary variants of COVID-19 rampant throughout our communities. Therefore we aim to settle your fears and concerns surrounding the COVID-19 delta variant, and the steps our company has taken to protect and reduce this new risk to you, so you can continue to use your monitors to provide that much needed support to your patients.

The virus, COVID-19, belongs to the Coronaviridae family, their shape is typically spherical with crown-like spikes on the outer surface1. This family of viruses are generally 125nm in diameter, but can be as small as 65nm1.  Viruses are renowned for mutating quickly3, in fact COVID-19 is described as having a relatively sluggish mutation rate in comparison to other established viruses2, however researchers have catalogued more than 12,000 mutations since the start of the pandemic2.

It is important to note a great majority of these mutations will have no consequence to the viruses’ ability to spread or cause disease2.  Some variants will however be significant, with the variant of concern being the COVID-19 Delta variant, warned by scientists over the world to be considerably more transmissible and contagious than other COVID variants.

The delta variant has a combination of (not limited to) two key mutations;

  1. A mutation at location 452 of the spike protein allows this particular variant of COVID-19 to bind more effectively to the ACE2 receptor protein, a protein found on the surface of the lung, meaning the virus can invade cells more effectively in comparison to other COVID-19 variants4.
  2. Mutation at position 478 on delta variant spikes which enables the virus to evade weak neutralising anti-bodies4.

The combination of the above mutations coupled with original mutations from the original virus makes for the delta variant to become a variant of considerable concern globally. However, Bedfont® Scientific has independently tested our mouthpiece filters to filter viruses as small as 24 nanometres5. In comparison, the model virus used to filter viruses are significantly smaller than the approximate size of viruses from the Coronaviridae family. The virus model used to test Bedfont®’s mouthpiece filters are incredibly penetrable, even more so than a majority of human viruses, therefore makes it a very effective model to use for virus filtration efficiency (VFE) testing.

In conclusion, Bedfont® can deduce that there is no current evidence to suggest the delta variants approximate size has significantly changed or is a significantly different size in other COVID variants of concern, and therefore the testing conducted on our mouthpiece filters is still effective. We maintain that bacterial and viral pathogens (including Delta variant COVID-19) will effectively be removed by both the D-piece™ and OneBreath™ mouthpiece filter at an efficiency rate of >99% (bacteria) and >97% (viruses), and >99% (bacteria) and >98% (viruses) for the Second Generation NObreath® mouthpiece filter.  

References:

  1. Shereen M, Khan S, Kazmi A, Bashir N, Siddique R. COVID-19 infection: Emergence, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses. Journal of Advanced Research. 2020;24:91-98.
  2.  Callaway E. The coronavirus is mutating — does it matter? [Internet]. Nature.com. 2021 [cited 14 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6
  3. Grubaugh N, Petrone M, Holmes E. We shouldn’t worry when a virus mutates during disease outbreaks. 2021.
  4. Mishra S. The Delta variant is spreading fast, especially where vaccination rates are low [Internet]. Science. 2021 [cited 14 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-delta-variant-is-serious-heres-why-its-on-the-rise
  5. Berkeywaterkb.com. 2020. Is The MS2 – Fr Coliphage Still Known To Be A Good Indicator Of Virus Filtration? Do You Have Tests On Any Other Viruses? – Berkey Knowledge Base. [online] Available at: http://berkeywaterkb.com/is-the-ms2-fr-coliphage-still-known-to-be-a-good-indicator-of-virus-filtration-at-least-one-article-suggests-that-it-might-not-be-do-you-have-tests-on-any-other-viruses/#:~:text=The MS-2 virus is 24-26,both referenced on the chart [Accessed 12 June 2020].
  1.  Grubaugh N, Petrone M, Holmes E. We shouldn’t worry when a virus mutates during disease outbreaks. 2021.
  2. Mishra S. The Delta variant is spreading fast, especially where vaccination rates are low [Internet]. Science. 2021 [cited 14 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-delta-variant-is-serious-heres-why-its-on-the-rise
  3. Berkeywaterkb.com. 2020. Is The MS2 – Fr Coliphage Still Known To Be A Good Indicator Of Virus Filtration? Do You Have Tests On Any Other Viruses? – Berkey Knowledge Base. [online] Available at: http://berkeywaterkb.com/is-the-ms2-fr-coliphage-still-known-to-be-a-good-indicator-of-virus-filtration-at-least-one-article-suggests-that-it-might-not-be-do-you-have-tests-on-any-other-viruses/#:~:text=The MS-2 virus is 24-26,both referenced on the chart [Accessed 12 June 2020].