- Researchers reported an unusual case study in which an older unvaccinated woman died after developing two strains of SARS-CoV-2
- As the delta variant spreads in the U.S. and more people return to a familiar life, the chance of contracting two strains increases if a person is unvaccinated and in a crowded setting.
- COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against all variants, and most people hospitalized from COVID-19 right now are not vaccinated.
After the case study of an unvaccinated older woman found to have acquired both the alpha and beta variants of COVID-19 was presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2021), experts confirmed it is possible to have two variants of COVID-19.
On March 3, a woman was admitted to a hospital in Belgium for treatment of injuries from a fall. Following a procedural test, she was found to be positive for the virus, according to a press release from ECCMID.
At the time, she showed no symptoms of COVID-19 but rapidly developed respiratory problems and died 5 days later.
When her respiratory sample was tested for variants of concern (VOCs) using the PCR test, doctors discovered she had two different strains of COVID-19, the B.1.1.7 (alpha) originating in the United Kingdom, and B.1.351 (beta), first detected in South Africa.
“This is one of the first documented cases of coinfection with two SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern,” lead author and molecular biologist Dr. Anne Vankeerberghen of the OLV Hospital in Aalst, Belgium, said in the statement.
“Both these variants were circulating in Belgium at the time,” Vankeerberghen continued. “So it is likely that the lady was coinfected with different viruses from two different people. Unfortunately, we don’t know how she became infected.”
Source: healthline