The death of a
90-year-old woman in Belgium after being simultaneously infected with the Alpha
and Beta variants of the novel coronavirus in March this year has alerted the
scientific community to double variant infections among COVID-19 patients.

The woman lived alone under at-home nursing care and was unvaccinated. She was admitted to OLV
Hospital in the Belgian city of Aalst after a spate of falls in March. The same
day, she tested positive for COVID-19.

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Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died five days later.

Her case is being
discussed at this year’s European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and
Infectious Diseases.

Anne Vankeerberghen,
the molecular biologist from OLV Hospital in Aalst who led the research on the
double infection case, said that both the Alpha and the Beta 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.

What is coinfection?

Coinfection
happens when one person is infected with two (or more) variants of the novel
coronavirus (in this case) simultaneously.

According to Anne
Vankeerberghen, while there is no published evidence of coinfection yet, the
phenomenon is possibly underestimated.

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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.

History of coinfections

Although the Belgian
case is the first documented case of coinfection, similar cases have also been
reported from elsewhere.

In January 2021,
scientists in Brazil reported that two people had been simultaneously infected
with two variants of the novel coronavirus, one of them a variant of concern
called Gamma.

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Researchers in Portugal
recently treated a 17-year-old who appeared to have caught a second type of
COVID while still recovering from a pre-existing infection.

Does
coinfection carry a higher mortality risk?

There’s no
scientific conclusion on this yet. Discussing the 90-year-old woman’s case, Dr
Anne Vankeerberghen said, “Whether the coinfection of the two variants of
concern played a role in the fast deterioration of the patient is difficult to
say.”

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The novel
coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has undergone some significant changes over
the last 18 months. Some of these changes may give it an advantage, for
example, by increasing its ability to replicate or dodge existing immunity from
past infection or vaccination.

Meanwhile, the Delta
variant is driving outbreaks all across Europe now after wreaking havoc in
India. Cyprus and Spain are perhaps the worst affected.