BRAZIL (Reuters) – Researchers in southern Brazil say they have simultaneously found patients infected with two different strains of the new coronavirus, reflecting concerns about the growing number of variants in the country.
The researchers, who posted their findings Wednesday on the medical website medRxiv, said their study would be the first in the world to confirm co-infection with two coronavirus strains. The study has not yet been published in a scientific journal and has not been reviewed by colleagues.
The patients, both 30 years old, were infected in late November with variant P.2 of the coronavirus identified in Rio, also known as B.1.1.28, and tested positive for the second variant of the virus simultaneously.
It seems that their symptoms were mild, with dry cough in one case and cough, sore throat and headache in the second case. They did not need hospitalization.
The cases highlight how many variants may already be circulating in Brazil and raise concerns among scientists that the existence of two strains in the same body could accelerate mutations in new variants of the coronavirus.
“These co-infections can generate combinations and generate new variants even faster than they did,” said study lead researcher Fernando Spilki, a virologist at Feevale University in Rio Grande do Sul.
“It would be another evolutionary path for the virus,” Spilki added.
The new variants run the risk of greater transmissibility and possible resistance to developing vaccines.
Mutations found in coronavirus variants in the UK and a more recent one in the Brazilian state of Amazonas seem to have made the virus more contagious.
The cases indicate the significant viral load circulating in Brazil, because co-infection can only occur when different viruses are transmitted in large quantities, Spilki said.
Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Written by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes and Aurora Ellis