Desk Report
Publish: 11 Jul 2021, 08:46 pm
A 90-year-old woman died in Belgium after getting infected with both the Alpha and Beta variants of the coronavirus at the same time. || Photo: Collected
It is possible to catch two Covid variants at the same time,
experts are warning after seeing a double infection in a 90-year-old woman who
became sick with the Alpha and Beta types first identified in the UK and South
Africa.
The woman, who died in March 2021 in Belgium, had not been
vaccinated.
Her doctors suspect she contracted the infections from two
different people, reports BBC.
They believe it is the first documented case of its kind
and, although rare, similar dual infections are happening.
Her case is being discussed at this year's European Congress
on Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.
In January 2021, scientists in Brazil reported that two
people had been simultaneously infected with two types of coronavirus, one of
them a variant of concern called Gamma.
Researchers from Portugal, meanwhile, recently treated a
17-year-old who appeared to have caught a second type of Covid while still
recovering from a different, pre-existing Covid infection.
The 90-year-old, who was infected with the two
"variants of concern" - the most worrying new versions of coronavirus
that experts are tracking - had been admitted to hospital after experiencing
some falls, but later developed worsening respiratory symptoms.
Laboratory tests on samples taken when she was admitted
revealed she had Covid-19, caused by two different mutated versions of the
pandemic virus, simultaneously - Alpha and Beta.
Lead researcher Dr Anne Vankeerberghen, from the OLV
hospital in Aalst, Belgium, said: "Both these variants were circulating in
Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the lady was co-infected with
different viruses from two different people. Unfortunately, we don't know how
she became infected.
"She was a lady who lived alone, but she got a lot of
helpers coming in to care for her.
"Whether the co-infection of the two variants of
concern played a role in the fast deterioration of the patient is difficult to
say."
Viruses constantly evolve by mutating as they replicate.
This creates new versions or variants.
Covid has undergone some important changes that may give it
an advantage - for example, by increasing its ability to replicate or dodge
some of our existing immunity from past infection or vaccination.
The most concerning ones are being closely monitored by
scientists and are called variants of concern.
Currently, in the UK, it is the Delta variant that is
spreading the most.
Experts are confident that existing vaccines offer good
protection against it.
Scientists are designing new Covid vaccines that will be an even better match for new variants, and could be used as boosters.
Prof Lawrence Young, an expert in virology at the University of Warwick, said: "Detecting two dominant variants of concern in a single person is not a surprise - these could have been passed on by a single infected individual, or by contact with multiple infected people."
He said more studies were needed to determine whether such infections in any way compromise the efficacy of vaccination, or make for a worse case of Covid-19.
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Topic : Covid-19 Double Variant
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