COVID-19: 90-year-old Belgian woman dies after contracting both Alpha & Beta variants

A 90-year-old Belgian woman who died due to COVID-19 was infected with both Alpha and Beta variants of SARS-CoV-2 at the same time, researchers have said. The unvaccinated woman was admitted to the OLV hospital in the city of Aalst after a spate of falls in March and tested positive for coronavirus on the same day. While her oxygen level was initially stable, it deteriorated as her infection surged and she finally died after five days. 

Now a team of molecular biologists led by Anne Vankeerberghen from OLV hospital has found that the woman was diagnosed to be carrying two-Alpha and Beta-strains of coronavirus simultaneously. “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,” Vankeerberghen said. Furthermore, she explained that no previous cases of “co-infection” have been detected and that the phenomenon was “probably underestimated.” 

Previously in January, Brazil reported a case of a man who had contracted two mutations together, but the case did not make it to any scientific journal. Meanwhile, Vankeerberghen said that the cause of the infection hasn’t been discovered and it was still difficult to tell whether co-infection played a role in the fast deterioration of the health of the patient. The research was presented at the Europe Congress on Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. 

Hybrid strain

While cases of double infection are rising, Vietnam detected a new Coronavirus strain, found to be a hybrid of the strains first found in India and the United Kingdom. Vietnamese lab tests have suggested that the hybrid variant it spreads more easily than any other COVID variant. This comes at a time when the mutant strain first found in India is said to have been the cause behind the lethal second wave of the virus infections, however, there has been no scientific report to substantiate the same. Viruses often develop minute genetic changes as they multiply thus, plenty of coronavirus variants have emerged since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic last year. The World Health Organisation enlisted four global "variants of concerns"- first found in the UK, India plus ones detected in South Africa and Brazil. 

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