According to experts, a 90-year-old Belgian woman who died after contracting Covid-19 was infected both with the Alpha and Beta forms of the coronavirus at the same time.
After a series of falls in March, the unvaccinated lady was hospitalised to the OLV hospital in Aalst and tested positive for Covid-19 the same day.
While her oxygen levels were initially adequate, her health soon worsened and she died five days later.
She tested positive for both the Alpha strain and the Beta variant.
“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,” said molecular biologist Anne Vankeerberghen from the OLV hospital who led the research.
“Unfortunately we don’t know how she became infected.”
Vankeerberghen stated it was impossible to determine whether the co-infection contributed to the patient’s rapid decline.
The study, which has not yet been published in a medical journal, will be presented at a European symposium on microbiology and infectious illnesses.
While Vankeerberghen stated that there had been “no other reported examples” of comparable co-infections, she also stated that the “phenomenon is probably underestimated.”
This was due to a lack of testing for potentially harmful variations, she explained, urging a greater use of rapid PCR testing to detect known variants.
Scientists in Brazil claimed in January that two patients had been infected with two different strains of the coronavirus at the same time, but the work has yet to be published in a scholarly publication.
According to Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, finding single individual infected with several strains was not surprising.
“This study does emphasise the need for more research to establish whether infection with numerous variations of concern alters the clinical course of Covid-19 and whether this in any way limits immunisation efficacy,” he added.
Eduindex News 