A woman doctor in Assam tested positive simultaneously for two different coronavirus variants of concern.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Case similar to any other mono-infection of the virus: Senior scientist
- ‘Nothing to worry that the dual infection will cause the severe disease’
- ‘Case followed for a month, patient recovered after hospitalisation’
Guwahati: A woman doctor in Assam who was fully dosed with Covid-19 vaccine was found to be positive for the virus by two different variants of concern — Alpha and Delta — simultaneously. She is doing “all right”, a senior scientist said.
“We have detected double infection of Covid-19 by two different variants of concern– Alpha and Delta. A lady doctor was found to be infected simultaneously with both the variants,” Dr. BJ Borkakoti, Senior Scientist, Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh said.
He added that it will be similar to any other mono-infection of the virus. “There is nothing to worry that the dual infection will cause the severe disease, it is not like that. We have followed the case for one month and she is quite all right. She was fully vaccinated.”
The woman who had a mild sore throat, body ache and insomnia, recovered without hospitalisation, he said.
There have been few such instances in the UK, Brazil and Portugal but such a case has not been reported from India so far, Dr Borkakoty said.
“A dual infection happens when two variants infect one person simultaneously or within a very short period. It occurs when someone gets infected with one variant and before immunity can develop, the person gets infected with another variant usually within two to three days of the first infection,” Dr. Borkakoty said.
“Most cases of dual infection may be missed if genetic sequencing is solely based on next-generation sequencing where variant calling is by software and not by manual examination of the specific genetic sequence”, the scientist said.
“Both the Alpha and Delta variants were circulating then and it is during this period when some people are most likely to have got infected with two different variants of the virus. When such infections are detected, it is called as a dual infection. It has to be reconfirmed with another technology called Sanger sequencing, targeting the specific mutations and examining the chromatogram manually,” Dr. Borkakoty explained.
