Flurona is not the name of a new virus , a mixture of influenza ( flu , in English) and coronavirus (hence “rona”) but rather refers to the co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. This co-infection can happen. In fact, cases such as that of a pregnant woman without vaccination of the flu or COVID-19 have already been detected in Israel. Last Monday, Catalonia reported several cases in the community.
Although it seems something new, the truth is that this has happened before : in 2020 in Mexico and in China. That same year, Ignacio López Goñi, professor of Microbiology published an article in The Lancet in which several cases of flurone were analyzed at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
There is not enough scientific evidence due to the recent detection of fluron, but from the detected cases it seems that the symptoms are, in principle, mild and the same as those found in a common respiratory infection .
It is rare for a healthy person to be infected with two viruses at the same time and, in general, the virus that they already have moves to the next one. Viral coinfection occurs more in people with a weakened or compromised immune system.
At the beginning of the pandemic, this idea was considered, that of being able to catch coronavirus and flu at the same time and if it would be something serious. Today, with a good number of the population vaccinated and with the omicron variant, which seems to be more mild, circulating, it is expected that the coronavirus and flu coinfection does not pose any extra problem unless there are comorbidities or there is a advanced age.
The flu rises in Spain and in Europe
The report “Sentinel Surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infection in Primary Care (ARIs) and in Hospitals (SARI) Flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses” prepared by the Carlos III Health Institute and the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network indicates that it is intensifying the circulation of influenza viruses .
The report also details that influenza is on the rise in the WHO European Region , especially in the northern and eastern countries of the Region and indicates that the “ECDC considers it prudent not to wait for additional data (which often lead to a retrospective increase in the positivity figures of previous weeks) and to declare the start of the flu epidemic at the European level ”. ECDC stands for European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
In this scenario of increased flu cases and the explosion of the omicron variant, it is expected that more coronavirus and flu co-infections will occur , which, as we have already pointed out before, do not necessarily have to be serious, although there is not enough evidence scientific about it.
Experts continue to recommend getting vaccinated against coronavirus and flu. The latter whenever the doctor indicates it.
