Can you be contaminated with two covid kinds on the identical time? Here’s what medical doctors say

As specialists examine Covid breakthrough circumstances, India not too long ago reported its first case of a physician from Assam getting contaminated with two COVID variants even after being absolutely vaccinated.

The medical doctors have been discovered contaminated with each alpha and delta variants. Similar circumstances of co-infection have beforehand been reported within the UK, Brazil and Portugal.

co-infection with two covid kinds

Co-infection of respiratory virus shouldn’t be unusual, Dr Vichar Nigam, Internal Medicine – Consultant Physician and Diabetologist, Columbia Asia Hospital, Pune, tells indianexpress.com. “RNA viruses such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or parainfluenza are known to coexist,” he says.

However, Dr Nigam says that for now, circumstances of co-infection with the 2 COVID variants will be termed as “rare”. “Mutants of the COVID-19 virus pose a excessive threat of such co-infection. Delta and alpha are each extra permeable.

Who is at higher threat? “The risk of coinfection is highest in immunocompromised and comorbid patients. Individual immune responses to the disease may also pose an increased risk for contagion. There may be coinfection with respiratory virus, as it has a tendency to evolve and mutate,” says Dr Rajesh Chawla, Senior Consultant, Pulmonology & Critical Care, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

Can the covid vaccine assist?

Dr Nigam says that vaccination will forestall mutation of the virus and the emergence of recent kinds. And within the case of co-infection, being vaccinated “may help prevent disease severity and prevent the need for critical care,” he explains.

“Vaccination can play an important role because it reduces the risk of serious consequences and mortality that emerge through different forms of anxiety,” he says.