After a patient in Belgium tested positive for two variants of the coronavirus, researchers want to investigate the phenomenon of co-infection.
Brussels – Scientists have already found several times when examining samples from corona * infected people that so-called co-infections can occur with the coronavirus and its variants. Individuals affected fell ill with several variants of the virus at the same time. As part of the online European Congress for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), researchers from Belgium have now taken up this topic and emphasized that research on this issue still has a lot of work to do.
The head of the underlying study, molecular biologist Anne Vankeerberghen from the OLV hospital in Aalst, west of Brussels, emphasized that there was not yet sufficient testing for variants. It is therefore not clear how often co-infections occur and how the double infection affects the course of the disease. Even if there have not been any articles published in specialist journals dealing with this phenomenon, Vankeerberghen said that due to the rare investigation of variants, it is likely that the co-infections are “an underestimated phenomenon”.
90-year-old dies after double corona infection with alpha and beta variants
The trigger for the study was the case of a 90-year-old from Belgium, who in March 2021 apparently contracted the coronavirus from two different people within a few days, with the beta and the alpha variant. * The lady came in after several falls Hospital in Aalst, where a corona test turned out positive on the same day. “Both 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,” explained Vankeerberghen
At first, the oxygen saturation in her blood was still good, but then the condition of the unvaccinated patient quickly deteriorated and she died within five days, the researchers describe the course of the disease in the 90-year-olds. Whether this co-infection was responsible for the old lady’s rapid deterioration in health is difficult to say, explained Vankeerberghen.
Critical corona course due to double infection: Research needs further studies
In January 2021, researchers from Brazil reported that two people had been infected with two different strains of the coronavirus at the same time, but this study has not yet been published in a scientific journal.
The Belgian study makes it clear “that further studies are necessary to determine whether an infection with several questionable variants affects the clinical course of Covid-19 and whether this in any way affects the effectiveness of vaccinations *,” explained the virologist Lawrence Young from the University of Warwick. (ska / AFP) * fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
