Covid-19: 'Flurona' isn't real, people can get co-infection, say researchers

Some posts on social media talked about one such infection named 'flurona' in Israel, which the users said is a double infection of Covid-19 and influenza.

But healthcare experts have now dismissed this, saying it's not a different thing.

"The contractions like 'flurona,' I think they're very misleading to people. It presents the idea two viruses have somehow merged into one, which is not at all the case," Dr Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine, told NBC News. "Somebody got a co-infection. People get co-infections all the time."

Other researchers too agree with Dr Foxman. Dr Guy Boivin, a clinical virologist in Quebec, explained that co-infection can result in three outcomes: Little or no symptoms, severe illness due to virus attacks at the same time or one infection could block another.

According to reports, the first case of 'flurona' was recorded late in December in a pregnant woman who was admitted to the Rabin Medical Centre in Petah Tikva to give birth. Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the young woman was not vaccinated.

At that time, Dr Nahla Abdel Wahab, a doctor at Cairo University Hospital, had told Israeli media that 'flurona' may indicate a major breakdown of the immunity system as two viruses are entering the human body at the same time.

Israel is administering a fourth vaccine shot against Covid-19 to individuals with a compromised immune system. It is mulling expanding the coverage to younger population as well.

Last week, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said that the Omicron variant is in the community transmission stage in India and has become dominant in multiple metros.

It also said BA.2 lineage, an infectious sub-variant of Omicron, has been found in a substantial fraction in the country.