While the English, South African and Brazilian variants of Sars-CoV-2 are now actively circulating in our territory, a recent study shows that it would be possible to be contaminated by two different strains. How is it possible ? What do we know about these “co-infections”?
A new protocol to limit the progression of variants
The appearance of new variants complicated the management of the epidemic. If the British variant is simply more contagious, the South African and Brazilian variants are of greater concern since they undermine the immunity acquired by a first infection or through vaccination. To date, these different strains represent around 14% of all positive Covid-19 tests, according to a survey carried out on January 27. At this point, experts believe that the British variant could become the majority in France by the beginning of March. In order to fight against the spread of these sars-CoV-2 mutations, the government has implemented a new health protocol. Thus, any person infected with the Brazilian or South African strain must respect a 10-day isolation. Likewise, when a case of one of these two variants is detected in a school, the closure of the class is declared.
Co-infection: an “unlikely” hypothesis according to some experts
The variants never end with unpleasant surprises in store for us. According to a recent study conducted by scientists from the University of Feevale, Brazil, published in the scientific pre-publication journal medRxiv, it would be possible to be contaminated simultaneously with two strains of sars-CoV-2. To reach this conclusion, the researchers took samples from 92 volunteers infected with Covid-19 at the end of November. They realized that 2 people were infected with two different strains. Although this discovery was not correlated with a worsening of symptoms, it nevertheless raises the question of these co-infections which can promote the appearance of new variants. However, these results have not yet been validated by an independent scientific committee. Asked by the Daily Mail, Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said it was “unlikely that two strains of Covid-19 could infect a cell at the same time.”
