ERRATUM: An earlier version of this article suggested Flurona was a new virus. 'Flurona' is the neologism for a co-infection: Covid-19 and the seasonal flu. We apologise for this partially false information.
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A young pregnant woman in Israel has become the first person to be diagnosed with ‘fluron—a’ a combination of coronavirus and influenza.
Flurona
The case was identified when the unvaccinated woman went to the Beilinson hospital in Petach Tikva. According to the Express, tests conducted on her showed the presence of both the Covid-19 and influenza pathogens. However, she presented with relatively mild symptoms of the disease.
Professor Arnon Vizhnitser director of the hospitals' Gynaecology Department said:
She was diagnosed with the flu and coronavirus as soon as she arrived. Both tests came back positive, even after we checked again.
The Israeli Health Ministry is studying the results of the novel mixture of the two infections to determine if it could cause a more serious illness, local media reports.
Experts in that country believe other patients may have contracted the combined viruses without being diagnosed.
Prof. Vizhnitser said:
Last year, we did not witness flu cases among pregnant or birthing women. Today, we are seeing cases of both coronavirus and the flu that are starting to rear their head. We are seeing more and more pregnant women with the flu.
Similarities
He explained the difficulty in dealing with cases like this among pregnant women.
It is definitely a great challenge dealing with a woman who comes in with a fever at childbirth. This is especially when you do not know if it's coronavirus or the flu, so you refer to them the same. Most of the illness is respiratory.
According to Prof. Vizhnitser, the two viruses appear similar in the way they manifest when they enter the human body.
The disease is the same disease; they're viral and cause difficulty breathing since both attack the upper respiratory tract.
