Researchers in Belgium discovered the case of a woman infected with two different types at the same time

Can the same person get two different types of infection? Results in Belgium Come this Sunday to sow doubt. Belgian researchers have already reported an unprecedented case of a non-generational man who died in March
COVID-19, after being infected at the same time with the alpha and beta variables. In their view, it is undoubtedly a phenomenon of “underestimation”.

“This is one of the first documented cases of co-infection with two worrisome strains of SARS-CoV-2,” molecular biologist Anne Vankerbergen, the study’s author, said in a press release from the European Conference on Microbiology. Infectious Diseases (ECCMID). On March 3, 2021, this 90-year-old woman, with no specific medical history and not immune, was admitted to a hospital in the Belgian city of Aalst after a series of falls, according to this case study, which was submitted to Congress and reviewed by its selection committee.

He tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival, initially showing “a good level of oxygen saturation and no signs of shortness of breath”, according to ECCMID. However, “she soon developed worsening respiratory symptoms and died five days later.” According to the biologist from OLV Hospital in Aalst, “It is difficult to determine whether co-infection with two variants played a role in the rapid deterioration of the patient’s condition.”

Two more cases have been reported in Brazil

In extensive testing and through sequencing, thehospital She found out she had been infected with two strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19. The variants Alpha and Beta were “prevalent in Belgium at the time (March 2021), so it is possible that the lady was infected by two different people. Unfortunately, we do not know how she was infected,” continued Dr. Vankerbergen.

So far, “there have been no other published cases” of co-infection with two variants, noted the researcher, who is “crucial” for further sequencing and study of this phenomenon. Two cases of people with two different variants found in Brazil were reported in January in a study “not yet published in a scientific journal,” according to ECCMID.