90-Year-Old Belgian Woman Dies After Two Covid-19 Variants Infect Her At The Same Time

The 90-year-old Belgian woman, who was treated at a hospital in Aalst near Brussels, was not vaccinated. Belgium and passed away after 5 days of hospitalisation

Representational Picture (AFP)

New Delhi: With so many variants of coronavirus being reported from different parts of the world and making the pandemic situation worse each day, here is a new case that has kept the scientific community at edge. In a rare case, a 90-year-old Belgian woman has been found to be the first documented case where two different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was found in the patient at the same time.

It may sound strange that how can two variants infect an individual at the same time. 

What’s the case of double infection?

According to the Reuters, the woman, who got infected in March this year, was found to be carrying both the Alpha and Beta variants. Alpha variant was first detected in UK while the Beta variant was discovered in South Africa respectively.

The nonagenarian died five days after being hospitalised.

Her unique case also became the centre of discussion at the annual European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

However, the woman, who was treated at a hospital in Aalst near Brussels, was not vaccinated. Belgium, like much of the European Union, also faced vaccine delivery problems early in 2021 due to which the vaccination programme took off slowly.

Such cases of “double infection”, where a person is detected with two variants of the virus at the same time, might be rare but it should not be surprising, believe experts.

Should you be concerned?

It is not the first time that such a case has been reported. Earlier in In January, scientists in Brazil reported two people had been simultaneously infected with two different strains of the coronavirus. Of which the gamma variant was first identified in Brazil and a variant currently under investigation was discovered in Rio Grande do Sul. However, the study has not yet been published in a scientific journal.

 Although such an event cannot be avoided, the chances of getting double infection remain low as mentioned by experts in Indian Express report. It is mainly because an infected person does not infect everyone who he or she comes in contact with. Hence, a person coming in contact with more than one infected person within a short period of time, and getting infected from all virus exposed has a statistically lower probability.