A 90-year-old woman who died after falling ill with COVID-19 was infected with the Alpha and Beta variants of SARS-CoV-2 at the same time, researchers in Belgium said yesterday, adding that the rare phenomenon could be underestimated.
The unvaccinated woman, who lived alone and received at-home nursing care, was admitted to the OLV Hospital in the Belgian city of Aalst after a spate of falls in March and tested positive for COVID-19 the same day.
While her oxygen levels were initially good, her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died five days later.
When medical staff tested for the presence of any variants of concern they found that she was carrying both the Alpha strain, which originated in the UK, and the Beta variant first detected in South Africa.
“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 Anne Vankeerberghen, a molecular biologist from OLV Hospital who led the research. “Unfortunately, we don’t know how she became infected.”
Vankeerberghen said it was difficult to say whether the coinfection played a role in the fast deterioration of the patient.
The research, which has not yet been submitted to a medical journal for publication, is being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
While Vankeerberghen said in a news release that there had been “no other published cases” of similar coinfections, she added that the “phenomenon is probably underestimated.”
This is because of limited testing for variants of concern, she said, calling for an increase in the use of fast polymerase chain reaction testing to detect known variant mutations.
In January, scientists in Brazil reported that two people had been simultaneously infected with two different strains of the virus, but the study has yet to be published in a scientific journal.
In comments reacting to the research, Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said that it was not a surprise to find an individual infected with more than one strain.
“This study does highlight the need for more studies to determine whether infection with multiple variants of concern affects the clinical course of COVID-19, and whether this in any way compromises the efficacy of vaccination,” he said.
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