Unpublished case of a 90-year-old Belgian woman who was simultaneously infected with two different types of COVID-19 | international

On Sunday, Belgian investigators reported an unpublished case of A The unborn died in March of COVID-19, after being infected with two different species simultaneously, alpha (British) and beta (South African), which is undoubtedly a phenomenon “undervalued”.

“This is one of the first documented cases of simultaneous infection with two worrisome types of SARS-CoV 2,” study author Molecular Biologist Anne Vankerbergen said in a statement from the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

On March 3, 2021, the woman was 90 years old, with no specific medical history Not vaccinated, was admitted to a hospital in the Belgian city of Aalst after several incidents, according to this case study, submitted to Congress and peer review by its selection committee.

According to ECCMID, the unborn person, who tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival, showed “a good level of oxygen saturation and no signs of shortness of breath”. However, “He soon developed worsening respiratory symptoms and died five days later.”The statement says.

According to the biologist at OLV Hospital in Aalst, “It is difficult to determine whether concomitant infection by two variants played a role in the rapid deterioration of the patient’s condition.”

In extensive testing and sequencing, the hospital discovered it had two strains of SARS CoV 2, which causes covid-19: one originally from Great Britain, called alpha, and the other was initially discovered in South Africa, called beta.

“The two variants were circulating in Belgium at the time (March 2021), so it is likely that it was women He was infected with two different people. “Unfortunately, we do not know how it was contaminated,” Dr Vankerbergen added.

up to date, There are no other cases published. of co-infections with two variants, says researcher Vankerbergen, who considers it “extremely important” to continue the sequence and study a phenomenon that “may have been underestimated.”

Two cases of people with two different variants found in Brazil were reported in January in a study “not yet published in a scientific journal,” according to ECCMID.