Researchers revealed on Saturday that a 90-year-old woman in Belgium was infected with both the Alpha and Beta forms of coronavirus at the same time before succumbing to the infection.
The woman was hospitalized at the OLV Hospital in Aalst after testing positive for Covid-19 on March 3. She had not been vaccinated. Initially, her oxygen level was good, but her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died five days later.
The physicians discovered that she was infected with both the Alpha and Beta strains. The Alpha version was first detected in Britain, whereas the Beta variation was initially found in South Africa.
Molecular biologist Anne Vankeerberghen from the OLV hospital who led the research 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 was infected.’
Vankeerbergen said it was difficult to say whether the co-infection played a role in the fast deterioration of the patient.
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The research is now being presented at a European Congress on Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, although it has yet to be submitted for publication in a medical journal. Despite the fact that there have been ‘no other published cases’ of comparable co-infections, Vankeerberghen added that the ‘phenomenon is probably underestimated.’
This was due to a lack of testing for potentially harmful variations, she said and advocated for greater use of rapid PCR testing to detect known variants.
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