Cases of double variant infections, in which a person is found to be infected with two variants of the virus at the same time, may be rare.
When infection with two variants of corona virus occurs at the same time. (symbolic picture)
A 90-year-old Belgian woman became infected with two different variants of the corona virus. Both alpha and beta variants were found in this woman. He died five days after being admitted to the hospital. Beta variants were first identified in the UK and South Africa.
The Indian Express quoted news agency Reuters as saying that this unique case was discussed at the annual European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
‘It’s not surprising’
In a conversation with the Indian Express on this matter, experts said that cases of double variant infection, in which a person is found to be infected with two variants of the virus at the same time, may be rare, but this is not surprising at all. Infection from multiple individuals in a short period of time is neither impossible nor unheard of.
VS Chauhan, former director of the Delhi-based International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, said, ‘If a person comes in contact with more than one infected person, he can get the infection from any or all of them. There is nothing that prevents such an incident.
Cases of double variant infection common in HIV patients
VS Chauhan further said, ‘It takes some time for the virus to spread inside the body and affect all the cells. Until this happens, some cells may be available to other viruses from other sources. It takes a few days and some time to build immunity against the virus. It is entirely possible to be infected by more than one person during that period. He said that such cases of double infection are very common in HIV patients.
‘Low chance of double variant infection’
Shahid Jameel, director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, said double variant infections are less likely. Because every activity between people does not spread infection. An infected person does not infect everyone with whom he comes in contact. Therefore, when a person meets more than one infected person during a short period of time, and the chances of getting the virus from all of them are low.
Shahid Jameel said that also, most of the time it is not clear whether a person has got the infection from one person or more than one person.
The truth will come out only after a thorough study
Shahid Jameel said, ‘The case of the Belgian woman is the first such case, which has been detected. But I am sure that many more such incidents have happened around the world and are still happening. No one can know the truth until you do a genome analysis of the virus sample from the infected person.
He said, ‘In the case of Belgium, the woman had two different forms of infection. Unless researchers investigate such active cases, it will not be easy to clarify. By the way, the chances of a person getting infected with multiple forms at the same time are very less.
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