US Scientists Fear Flurona – Coinfection Of Corona And Flu

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : January 11, 2022

A co-infection of corona and flu is now being termed flurona and it was majorly going unnoticed until recently. Chances are that more and more people will now suffer from it now that the omicron variant is spreading fast and people are more likely to get flu in winters. However, there is not much to fear as the measures that we are supposed to take against the prevention of corona like wearing a mask and practicing social distancing, are effective in keeping us safe from flu as well. And even if you get flurona, the vaccine can prevent the infection from becoming severe.

US Scientists Fear Flurona – Coinfection Of Corona And Flu

Flurona is not to be mistaken for a new variant, said Dr. Allison Messina from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, working as chief for years. It is a co-infection and it just means that the person has been infected by more than one pathogen at the same time.

US Scientists Fear Flurona – Coinfection Of Corona And Flu

On April 20 it was published in research in a Journal of the American Medical Association that people who are infected with COVID-19 were being co-infected with all sorts of viruses like adenovirus, rhinovirus, and enterovirus, causing severe diseases in children and older adults. Co-infections are actually very common. All this was much before this flurona wave. More and more people started to become aware of this covid and flu co-infection after a case of a pregnant woman was announced in the Times of Israel and the first such case was reported in a man in Queens, New York as early as February 2020. Such cases have also been reported in Houston, Florida, and Los Angeles in the United States. However, it seems that this co-infection will not be very common because it is being inhibited by all the precautions that we are supposed to take against Covid 19 and very few cases of flu have been reported around the world in the past two years. But, the specialists are not sure yet. There have been lesser vaccinations against flu in the past few years and people’s immunity against flu has reduced. Although fewer cases of flu are being reported right now, this trend can change very easily anytime and it can get worse. 

An infectious disease specialist and associate chief medical officer, doctor Soniya Gandhi said that if flu starts to spread in the community then a lot of people can get co-infected with it along with covid. But it can be challenging to find out if the patient has a Co-infection unless he tests for both flu and covid because both of them present with similar symptoms. So, plenty of such cases can go unrecorded if a person suffering from a mild covid infection does not get hospitalized where he would be tested properly for both corona and the flu. 

Currently, the future of the severity of the spread of flurona and its effect on people is uncertain because not many cases of flurona, have been studied since the level of spread of flu is low. However, because they are both serious respiratory diseases, getting both of them together can be potentially fatal. Both of them affect the same areas, that is the nose, throat, and lungs. It can be particularly more dangerous for those patients who have poor immune systems or who are already suffering from a respiratory problem because it will be even more taxing for their bodies to fight such fatal infections. It is being feared that all this can lead to more severe diseases because both coronavirus and the flu can mutate to become even more dangerous. 


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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