Covid-19: What happens if you’re simultaneously infected with two variants?
By Maitreyi Shivkumar
Scientists in Brazil recently reported that two people were simultaneously infected with two different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19. This co-infection seemed to have no effect on the severity of patients’ illness, and both recovered without needing to be hospitalised.
Although this is one of the few such cases recorded with SARS-CoV-2 – and the study is yet to be published in a scientific journal – scientists have observed infections with multiple strains with other respiratory viruses, such as influenza. This has raised questions about how these viruses may interact in an infected person, and what it could mean for generating new variants.