Woman died from coronavirus after contracting two different strains at the same time

A new alert has shaken the international scientific world. Belgian health authorities announced on Sunday that a 90-year-old woman died in March in Belgium tested positive for the coronavirus for the Alpha and Beta variants, originating in the UK and South Africa both. The revelation confirms that contagion with two variants of COVID-19 is possible.

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The case will now be debated at the European Congress of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. The woman was not vaccinated and was apparently infected after coming into contact with two infected people. This is apparently the first documented case of this type, the British channel reported. BBC.

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Anne Vankeerberghen, chief researcher at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis hospital (OLVZ) in the city of Aalst, in northern Belgium, explained that “both variants were present in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the woman was infected at the time by different viruses ”. “Unfortunately we don’t know how he got infected», He indicated.

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The woman lived alone, but there were many people helping her take care of her. Therefore, the authorities consider it difficult to determine whether the co-infection of the two dangerous variants was at the origin of the rapid deterioration of the patient.

Although her oxygen levels were good at first, her condition quickly deteriorated. and died five days after entering hospital.

When tested for the viral variant, medical staff discovered that the patient had been infected with the Alpha and Beta strains. “Both variants were circulating in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the woman was co-infected with different viruses from two different people,” Vankeerberghen told the local press.

According to the molecular biologist, it is unclear whether infection with the two variants influenced the rapid decline in women’s health. The research has yet to be published in a medical journal.

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Other background

In a statement, Vankeerberghen said there were no other published cases of infections with two variants, but warned that this phenomenon “is probably underestimated”, in part because of the limited testing done for detect the origins of infections.

Other similar cases are the one detected in January in Brazil with a possible double contagion, one of them of the Gamma variant, or that of Portugal, where recently a young man of 17 years was said to have been infected again with a another variant while he was still recovering from a previous contagion.