An senior Belgian woman died earlier this year after contracting two separateCOVID-19 variantsat the same time , it has been report . Presenting data from the case discipline at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases ( ECCMID ) , a squad of research worker excuse that this is the first documented case of multiple variants of the virus being detected in a single patient at once .
The 90 - class - honest-to-god patient was ab initio admitted to the OLV Hospital in the Belgian metropolis of Aalst on March 3 after suffering a serial of falls . She had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 , and while she initially did not exhibit any symptoms of the illness , she test positive for the virus upon arrive at the hospital . aesculapian staff then conducted further polymerase chain reaction ( PCR ) tests in Holy Order to determine whether the patient was convey any particular variants of concern ( VOCs ) , with results designate that she had been co - infected with theAlpha variance – which was first discover in the UK in December 2020 – and theBeta variant , which come forth in South Africa around the same time . “Both these variants were circulating in Belgium at the time , so it is likely that the lady was co - septic with different computer virus from two different people,”explainedlead research worker Dr Anne Vankeerberghen . “ regrettably , we do n’t cognize how she became septic . ”The study authors steer out that the patient had not come from a care adroitness , but lived alone and receive breast feeding maintenance at home base . Despite not suffering from any respiratory number when first admitted to the infirmary , she developed “ rapidly worsening ” symptom following her arriver , and died five days later on . “ Whether the co - infection of the two variants of concern played a role in the fast decline in quality of the patient is difficult to say ” , excuse Vankeerberghen . While some report have indicate that two local VOCs weredetected in a patient in Brazilin January of this year , Vankeerberghen say that “ up to now , there have been no other published cases [ of someone becoming infected with multiple discrepancy ] ” . However , she goes on to discourage that “ the global natural event of this phenomenon is probably underrate due to modified testing for variant of concern and the lack of a simple fashion to identify co - infection with whole genome sequence . ”
