Flurona: Double whammy simultaneous Covid and flu infection

Cases of simultaneous flu and Covid infections or ‘Flurona’ have been detected in the United States and other areas this week.

Although the ‘Flurona’ double whammy Covid and flu infection is uncommon, two children in the US have been given the rare diagnosis and, according to The Atlantic, there have been cases found in New York as the pandemic was first hitting the US in February of 2020.
One child was diagnosed at a hospital in Texas and another case made headlines on New Year’s Day in Brentwood, California.
The first case was found in Israel when an unvaccinated pregnant woman contracted the double virus.
The combination of infections has always been possible and with the highly contagious Omicron variant circulating during flu season, there is a greater chance that more people will test positive for both viruses at the same time.
Dr Frank Esper, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Pediatric Infectious Diseases told USA Today: “Hands down, the No. 1 predisposition for having more than one virus at the same time is your age, and it’s really children under 5.”
“They all have virus running rampant and swap them like trading cards.”
It is still unclear what kind of disease ‘Flurona’ may cause, however, health experts in America are urging people to get vaccinated for both the flu and Covid.
The flu vaccine is available to children over 6 months, and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is available to children 5 and older.

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