An ‘alarm’ has been sounded in Israel as the first case of double infection with influenza and coronavirus was recorded. Experts have named the phenomenon Flurona, from the combination of the words Flu (flu) and corona (coronavirus).
The double infection, according to Newsweek citing inside Israel, was recorded in a young mother in the Rabin Medical Center. Professor Arnon Vizhnitser, director of the gynecology department at the city hospital, said the woman tested positive for both viruses as soon as she arrived at the medical center and had a double check-up to confirm it.
#BREAKING: #Israel records first case of #florona disease, a double infection of #COVID19 and influenza: Al-Arabiya https://t.co/PTTLP4n0rS pic.twitter.com/mYpgnG8ZE1— Arab News (@arabnews) December 31, 2021
The Israeli Ministry of Health is monitoring the patient’s condition, which has mild symptoms, in an effort to identify the effects of the combination of the two viruses on the human body. According to doctors, many people may have been infected with two viruses and have not yet been diagnosed.
“Flurona:” In 1st In Israel: New Mother Ill With COVID And The Fluhttps://t.co/Uw3HSsA0MP— Yeshiva World News (@YWN) December 30, 2021
“Last year, we did not observe any cases of influenza among pregnant women or women in childbirth,” Professor Arnon Vizhnitser said. “Today we are seeing cases of both coronavirus and influenza that are starting to raise their heads.”
The infection of Covid and flu together is a bit strange because in medicine it has always been said that if there is a virus that gives one disease, it prevents another from developing due to a different virus.
The explanation could lie in the fact that Covid causes a defect in the production of interferon and this would open the way to the other virus, which in this case is the flu.
Meanwhile, other similar cases are being investigated, for a brand new combination that could give a new twist to the pandemic within 2022.
For the time being, however, there does not seem to be much cause for concern. Somehow, people around the world have made “flurona” a new “trend”, mostly with humorous posts about the new disaster that befell us!
🚨🚨 As Omicron is proving less deadly we need another variant. How about #flurona?
➡️ Waiting for the express to say blizzards are coming too and coldest winter on record.
https://t.co/XfnNXdNFOx— Jamie Jenkins (@statsjamie) December 31, 2021
Flurona now lol 😆 pic.twitter.com/mxKEW3zfxI— Mizz Moody 🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪 (@overit_miss) December 30, 2021
Covid in 2021 vs Covid in 2022 pic.twitter.com/JVeIRTJW3I— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) December 31, 2021
Influenza wave in Israel and covid infections tripled in a week
Israel is experiencing a flu wave as Israeli hospitals have treated 1,849 patients with the disease so far last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Israeli Ministry of Health. At the same time, the coronavirus is sweeping the country, recording a record number of cases.
Meanwhile, coronavirus infections continue to grow in Israel with the R index on the rise: it is at 1.62, well above the ‘red threshold’ (1).
