India’s first case of COVID double variant infection detected at ICMR Dibrugarh
Confirming the report, a nodal officer and scientist of ICMR-RMRC Dibrugarh, Dr Biswajyoti Borkakoty, informed that a female doctor from Dibrugarh, involved in COVID work was found infected by the Alpha variant early this year. Later, after recovering fully she got infected with the Delta variant in May.
By Avik Chakraborty
DIBRUGARH:
The first case of COVID double variant infection in the country was detected at ICMR-RMRC in Dibrugarh recently.
Confirming the report, a nodal officer and scientist of ICMR-RMRC Dibrugarh, Dr Biswajyoti Borkakoty, informed that a female doctor from Dibrugarh, involved in COVID work was found infected by the Alpha variant early this year. Later, after recovering fully she got infected with the Delta variant in May.
Terming it as a rare case, Borkakoty said it was the first such case reported from India. He said that only four such cases of double variant infection have so far been reported from across the world.
In January 2021, two people from Brazil were infected with two types of coronavirus.
Another such case was reported from Portugal, when a 17-year-old was diagnosed with a second variant of the COVID virus while still recovering from a different, pre-existing COVID infection.
Likewise, in March this year, a 90-year old woman from Belgium died after being infected with the Alpha and Beta variants of the coronavirus.
"This is the first case of double variant infection detected in India. No such case has been reported from the country so far. The patient is a doctor from Dibrugarh who was involved in active COVID-19 duty treating covid infected patients." Dr Borkakoty said.
"She was infected with B.1.1.7 also known as the Alpha variant or UK variant. By March she had fully recovered, but after a month she got infected with COVID-19 again. During genome sequencing recently, we found that she was infected with the Delta variant (B.B.617.2), also known as the Indian variant. She had mild symptoms. She recovered quite well and did not require any hospitalisation," Dr Borkakoty added.
During July last year, a team led by Dr Borkakoty had successfully managed to isolate the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2), and by doing so ICMR-RMRC Dibrugarh became the third government laboratory in the country to achieve the feat.
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