Coronavirus: are two strains together deadlier than one?

Researchers in the United States say some people could be infected by two variations of the pathogen at once, sending the immune system into overdrive

Major study needed to confirm whether theory is supported, Chinese scientist says

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The coronavirus has infected more than 13.8 million people around the world. Photo: US National Institutes of Health via EPA-EFE

Published: 11:00pm, 17 Jul 2020Updated: 9:13pm, 13 Oct 2020

Different strains of the new coronavirus could be infecting people in some communities at once, pushing up the death toll from the disease, according to a new study.

Researchers from the UC Berkeley school of public health said variations of the pathogen circulating in Europe and the United States could be causing “serial infections” in some people, confusing the immune system and triggering an overreaction or even death.

“If one strain is still highly prevalent, the situation should be closely monitored, especially for severe disease occurrence, and social distancing should still be maintained to make sure the second strain doesn’t get introduced,” Lee Riley, professor and chair of the division of infectious disease and vaccinology at the school and lead author of the study, told the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

The team’s findings, which have not been peer-reviewed, were posted on the preprint service medRxiv.org on Wednesday.

Previous studies found that as Sars-CoV-2, the official name for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, spread from person to person, it acquired an important mutation called D614G. This mutation could improve the physical stability of its spike protein and make it more infectious, according to some research.

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