FLURONA: What is it and How to Prevent it
I’m sure you had come across the recent news of “Flurona” virus, in a pregnant woman of Israel. According to a few reports, this is the world’s first case of the “Flurona” virus. The woman had visited the hospital for a regular gynaeco check-up. As of then, she had experienced breathlessness, thus was tested and admitted in the hospital for flu.
Following this, her lab results also turned out to be positive for the Corona virus. Later that week, the unvaccinated pregnant woman was relieved from the hospital, after her recuperation. Now, the Flurona case toll is fast-rising, in and around, the United States of America and Bulgarian regions. Many news channels are reporting this occurrence as a “Twindemic”.
For sure, this news has made an impact around the world through social media. By rumoring the SARS-Corona virus now having the capability to combine with other organisms, thus making it a “Hybrid”. But the truth is way different from it. In fact it is pretty silly. Actually, Flurona is just a co-existence of the Corona virus and Influenza virus in the same individual. Since the climate of such places, with lesser moisture levels, favors the Influenza virus to spread as quickly as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus. It is inevitable for people there, to not contract both the microbes simultaneously. This doesn’t mean the viruses had mutated to combine with other genomes.
Lets go back to 2020, when the COVID first wave was at its peaks. During the winters of 2020, do you think there wasn’t any other micro-organisms present in this planet? Or was it that, the COVID virus had destroyed or enslaved all other microbes? No, surely not! Even then the Influenza virus was present all the time, as like all other existing microbial creatures. This may make you wonder, “then why is this news ‘unfamiliar’, if it was present since then?” Well, during the first wave, due to the lack of vaccine availability; there were high and strict maintenance of “Social distance”, “Hand hygiene”, “Oral hygiene” and “Social restrictions”. These actions had prevented the Influenza virus to spread widely. Thus, no news of such conditions were brought to light.
In contrary to the reports claiming this occurrence (in the Israeli woman) as the “first of its kind”, the WHO reveals that, there already had been prior incidences of this comorbidity in Asia and United States. A research in Wuhan in 2020 has revealed that, nearly 18% of the COVID patients had co-infection of Influenza. Another research of the same year in New York has reported: out of the 2,000 COVID-19 affected individuals nearly 43% of them had another pathogen in their system — with the flu virus and the rhinovirus as the most common ones.
The second most important reason for this surge is that, there has been a drop in the number of “Flu vaccinations”. Along with the rapidly increasing Omicron cases, the incidence of such comorbidities is turning out to be frequent and higher, compared to that of the previous years.
Having said those, researchers and medical professionals also claim that, it is also possible for the co-infection to cause longer illness. According to a Wuhan study, the patients who had been affected by flu virus took nearly 18 days to recover from Corona virus, while around 12 days for those who had contracted only one infection. It is also unpredictable to anticipate the symptoms of any double infections, as all viruses manifest themselves in an unique way. Lets say, a combo of virus 1 and virus 2 is displaying the symptoms of cold and cough, whilst the combo of virus 2 and virus 3 will display a completely different set of symptoms. This highlights the need of more data, in order to draw any conclusions.
Coming to the heart of this discussion, does the flurona virus affect children? In general, children are eight to nine times more prone in contracting multiple infections simultaneously, when compared to adults. Yet, as said, more researches has to be made over SARS-Corona virus and its nature, for an affirmative answer.
Though the good news is that, we already know how to prevent such bi-infections, in fact we have already practiced it for a year. Since the vaccines for this virus has been manufactured and are administered worldwide, we aren’t as cautious and deliberate, as we were in the 2020, to prevent getting infected. Hence, irrespective of being double vaccinated or had booster doses, we have to stay socially as well as hygienically pertinent. Even if not for Yourself, at least for the sake of the Innocent Children around us.
We’ll meet in the next blog. Until then…
Stay Safe and Healthy.
See you soon…
