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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Coinfections of the flu and COVID-19, dubbed "<keyword id="12896449" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="flurona" source="Orion">flurona</keyword>," are unusual but could become more common.</li><li>One man said the worst of his case lasted about 48 hours and included terrible night sweats.</li></ul>When Jamie Grayson first started to feel sick in mid-December, he didn't think much of it. "It felt like I had like a sore throat," the <a href="https://twitter.com/thebabyguynyc/status/1477723259936251904?s=21">baby-gear expert</a> told Insider. "Like I'd just been yelling at bars."But as his symptoms progressed over the course of a few days, he started to wonder whether it was more than just a case of laryngitis. He had just been visiting friends in New York City, "where it's like a hotbed of Omicron right now," he said. "As I started to develop a cough, I was like, 'mmm, something's wrong.'" Grayson started to wonder whether he might've picked up COVID-19, and he went to a clinic to get tested. "I changed my flight back home because I wanted to make sure I got a negative test before I got on the plane," Grayson, who lives in Denver, said. "It just felt responsible."Though he is fully vaccinated against the <keyword id="11893194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus" source="Orion">coronavirus</keyword> (with Johnson &amp; Johnson's one-shot vaccine) Grayson hasn't had a booster shot yet, and he didn't get a <keyword id="12198254" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="flu-shot" source="Orion">flu shot</keyword> this year, either. At the clinic, based on his symptoms and vaccination status, clinicians tested him for both the flu and the coronavirus. To his surprise, both tests turned up positive.Disease experts call what Grayson had a coinfection, but you might have heard of it recently as "flurona." Whatever you want to call it, a coinfection like Grayson's is nothing to panic about, but it is a reason to make sure you're <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-does-up-to-date-fully-vaccinated-mean-covid-cdc-2022-1">up to date</a> on both your flu and COVID-19 vaccinations this winter."I was luckily vaccinated, and it was fairly mild," he said. "I don't understand what the big deal is, to be honest."<h2>'Flurona' is what scientists call a coinfection</h2>"Flurona is not a term that we use at CDC," Alicia Budd, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's influenza division, told Insider.The term popped up recently after a slew of coronavirus-influenza coinfections were diagnosed, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/flurona-israel-records-its-first-case-of-patient-with-covid-and-flu-at-same-time/">first in Israel</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-states-fluorona-flu-and-covid-19-kansas-mississippi-texas-2022-1">then in California</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-states-fluorona-flu-and-covid-19-kansas-mississippi-texas-2022-1">Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina</a>. Infectious-disease experts generally agree with Grayson that coinfection is not a "big deal," at least for most people. "It's the very unlucky individual who ends up with two respiratory-virus infections at the same time," Budd said. The reason that we haven't heard much about flu-COVID-19 coinfections before now is that the flu barely circulated last year, virtually <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-flu-varieties-disappeared-lockdown-extinct-2021-6">disappearing (at least temporarily</a>) as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as widespread masking and social-distancing measures. Budd says coinfections "could happen with any two viruses that are circulating at the same time." We've seen it play out before with the respiratory syncytial virus (or RSV) and the flu, as well as different strains of the flu. "This is not a situation where these two viruses are merging," Budd said. "This is a situation where one unlucky individual has gotten infected with two separate viruses."The CDC has one hospital-surveillance system called <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/influenza-hospitalization-surveillance.htm">FluSurv-NET</a> that might be able to provide some clues in the next few weeks as to how common flu-coronavirus coinfections really are, at least among hospitalized patients, Budd said. "That looks to be very uncommon at this point, but it's certainly something that we're going to continue to monitor through that system," she added. <h2>Flu and COVID-19 symptoms are hard to disentangle </h2><div type="image" title="a headshot of jamie grayson" height="1155" width="1536" msid="88843501" hostid="261"></div>For Grayson, one of those "unlucky" recipients of a dual coronavirus-flu infection during this pandemic, the worst symptoms lasted for about two to three days. His sore throat at one point got so bad he said "it felt like razor blades were shoved down my throat because of the coughing situation," and he said he "had these wild body chills and sweats to the point where I would have to switch my bed and rotate in the middle of the night because my sheets were soaking wet."After that "rough two- to three-day" patch, though, he started feeling better, save for a "remnant cough."He spent the next <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/people-should-get-rapid-test-or-wear-high-quality-mask-after-5-days-jha-2022-1">10 days in isolation, to prevent spreading his illnesses</a>. The clinic had advised him to keep close tabs on his respiratory symptoms and seek emergency-room care if he had any trouble breathing. Since he didn't, he simply rested, "hung out, watched a lot of Food Network, and hydrated."He didn't lose his sense of taste or smell, which used to be hallmark signs of contracting COVID-19 but <a href="http://businessinsider.com/sore-throat-early-symptom-omicron-covid-variant-2022-1">which is becoming less common now</a>. "It was fairly mild, aside from the sweats," he said, describing them as "full-body drench, one leg under a blanket, the rest of my body sprawled out on the bed, fully uncomfortable, terrible."<h2>How your body responds to having flu and COVID-19 at the same time</h2>Getting sick with more than one virus at a time can increase — or <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.710010/full">even decrease</a> — the severity of each illness. It depends on the person, and which viruses are involved.For example, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2824225/">scientists in Norway</a> did some research in the late 1970s and early 1980s that suggested seasonal flu infections might have prevented some RSV infections in children at certain times of the year. Similarly, in some instances, being infected with <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28181195/">one strain of the flu</a> might prevent a person from catching another one at the same time — in others it might not.Dr. Caroline Goldzweig, chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, said the level of concern practitioners have for a coinfection "really depends on the frailty of the patient.""A patient who has a normal immune capacity is probably going to mount an immune reaction, and they're gonna try and fight off both viruses," she said. In that case, "it's kind of just symptomatic treatment for both. Tylenol for fever and aches, and push the fluids, and rest, and that kind of thing."Budd agreed that the concern is really: is this patient very vulnerable to COVID-19 or the flu in general? "People who are prone to a more severe infection with either of the viruses are probably going to have a more difficult time handling it if they're infected with both," Budd said. For those high risk patients, doctors can prescribe antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu for flu and PAXLOVID for COVID-19. Taken early, they can help prevent hospitalization and death in vulnerable patients.<h2>How to prevent flurona</h2>Both Budd and Goldzweig said the first prevention measure to emphasize is vaccination, for both COVID-19 and the flu. It's not too late to get your flu vaccine, if you haven't yet.While it's true that the strains targeted by both the flu shot and the COVID-19 vaccines <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/psaki-fox-news-reporter-spar-bidens-pandemic-of-unvaccinated-comments-2022-1">aren't perfect matches</a> for what's circulating right now, the vaccines not only make it less likely you'll get a coinfection in the first place, they also make an infection <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flu-shot-2018-effectiveness-availability-where-to-get-2018-9">milder, quicker, and easier</a>, if you do get it. "A lot of people don't get the flu vaccine," Goldzweig said. "In younger people, the flu can put you outta work for weeks, you know, it really can floor you."Grayson says he's "very happy" that he was vaccinated against COVID-19 before he got his flu-coronavirus co-infection."I know people who are not vaccinated right now, and they have been sick for two weeks with this," he said, referring to unvaccinated friends who've caught COVID recently. He said if he hadn't been vaccinated, "I don't know what flu and COVID would've done, to be honest."

A man who had a rare case of 'flurona' describes feeling as if he had razor blades in his throat and 'wild' night sweats that cleared after 48 hours

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Anecdotal reports of "<keyword id="12896449" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="flurona" source="Orion">flurona</keyword>" — the flu plus <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword> — are appearing around the US.</li><li>People from five states said they tested positive for COVID-19 and flu at the same time. </li></ul>Cases of "flurona" — a combination of the flu and COVID-19 — have been reported by people in five states in recent days.But cases of the co-infection might be more widespread than the numbers suggest, as doctors don't routinely test for the flu.The idea that flu could co-infect with COVID-19 is not new. As the two waves of disease sweep across the country, they are bound to come across the same person at the same time, a phenomenon referred to as a "twindemic."Co-infections of many diseases with the flu are "exceedingly common," The LA County Department of Public Health <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/unvaccinated-teen-la-tests-positive-for-co-infection-of-flurona-2022-1">told the LA Times,</a> although there have been only a few cases of flu and COVID-19 definitively found altogether. That could be because the symptoms for the two diseases are extremely similar and that doctors in the US don't routinely test patients for flu unless they are in a hospital setting, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/diagnosis/consider-influenza-testing.htm">per the CDC</a>.This could mean that milder flurona cases were happening all the time without anyone noticing."We are not tracking these occurrences systematically and cannot tell you how frequently they have occurred," LA health officials told the LA Times in a statement.Another potential reason is that there were <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm">comparatively few cases of flu in 2021 altogether</a>.<h2>Is the spread of flurona concerning?</h2>Carrying both the <keyword id="11893194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus" source="Orion">coronavirus</keyword> and the flu virus at the same time is not in itself "overly concerning," Steve Farzam, the chief operating officer of a testing center in Los Angeles, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-05/l-a-county-detects-first-flurona-case-combination-of-flu-covid">told the LA Times</a>.But the increased prevalence of both COVID-19 and the flu means the two conditions appear to be increasingly interacting.Here are the cases that have been reported, by state:<ul><li><keyword id="11892889" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="california" source="Orion">California</keyword>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/unvaccinated-teen-la-tests-positive-for-co-infection-of-flurona-2022-1">one unvaccinated </a>teen returning to LA from Mexico. He had only mild symptoms and is recovering at home, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-05/l-a-county-detects-first-flurona-case-combination-of-flu-covid">per the LA Times. </a></li><li><keyword id="11896956" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="texas" source="Orion">Texas</keyword>: Alec Zierlein, a 17-year-old teen, was found to have flurona over Christmas after getting mild cold-like symptoms, per <a href="https://abc13.com/houston-coronavirus-flu-spread-what-is-flurona/11425772/">ABC News 13.</a> He was double vaccinated for COVID-19, but not for flu. Galveston's University of Texas Medical Branch also recorded three cases of "flurona," one of which was a child, per ABC News 13. All patients are recovering well, said Dr. Janak Patel, an official from the hospital, per ABC. Another child was found to have the co-infection in a children's hospital in Houston, <a href="https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/texas-physicians-monitor-flu-covid-dual-infections-after-1st-confirmed-case/">per KXAN. </a>The patient was not hospitalized and is recovering at home, <a href="https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/texas-physicians-monitor-flu-covid-dual-infections-after-1st-confirmed-case/">per KXAN.</a></li><li><keyword id="11972586" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kansas" source="Orion">Kansas</keyword>: one unnamed patient in a <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article257081777.html">medical center outside of Kansas City</a> was found to have flurona before being admitted to the ICU. Whether they had been vaccinated was not mentioned. It is not clear whether their serious condition is due to the infections. Kansas health provider Stormont Vail also reported cases, although not provide any information about the cases, <a href="https://www.wibw.com/2022/01/05/first-case-flurona-confirmed-kansas/">per local news outlet 13 NEWS</a>. Double vaccinated Wichita resident Gary Ayers also reported having tested double-positive, <a href="https://www.kwch.com/2022/01/06/more-flurona-type-cases-reported-multiple-states-including-kansas/">per KWCH12, </a>and having only mild symptoms. </li><li><keyword id="11898268" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mississippi" source="Orion">Mississippi</keyword>: Bobby Rose, a Batesville man, was vaccinated but not boosted when he and his daughter caught both infections. They reported flu-like illness, <a href="https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/local/flurona-man-battles-flu-covid-19-same-time/4D6U572QFRAMFDDDJPY4ZTSYTQ/">per Fox 13 News</a>.</li><li>North Carolina: <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/flurona-hits-the-united-states-amid-record-covid-19-cases-resurgence-of-influenza">Fox News</a> reported that a seven-year boy was on bed rest for two days around Christmas after the co-infection was detected. He had received his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine a month earlier, per Fox. </li></ul><div type="image" title="a kid getting covid vaccine" height="3887" width="5183" msid="88737278" hostid="261"></div>This is not the first time cases have been reported in the US. A hospital in New York reported the co-infection as early as February 2020, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/covid-flu-same-time/620729/">per The Atlantic.</a> Other countries like Israel and the Philippines have also reported anecdotal cases, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/05/flurona-coronavirus-flu-symptoms/">per The Washington Post</a>.Experts have said that in healthy, vaccinated individuals, flurona is no cause for concern. "It is concerning and can be problematic for someone who has preexisting medical conditions, anyone who is immunocompromised," Farzam, the LA testing expert, told the LA Times.The best bet is to get vaccinated against both diseases, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/05/flurona-coronavirus-flu-symptoms/">experts </a>have <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/01/05/flu-and-covid-flurona-real-and-doctors-expect-see-more/9087211002/">said.</a>

Cases of possible Flurona 'twindemic' — a combination of COVID-19 and flu — might be flying under the radar but isn't 'overly concerning,' expert says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Catching <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword> and the <keyword id="12048786" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="flu" source="Orion">flu</keyword> at the same time appears to be "very uncommon," a <keyword id="11917544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cdc" source="Orion">CDC</keyword> expert says.</li><li>The CDC epidemiologist told Insider that the agency is monitoring "flurona" coinfections.</li></ul>A "flurona" infection — catching COVID-19 and the flu at the same time — appears to be "very uncommon," a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert said. Coinfections "could happen with any two viruses that are circulating at the same time," Alicia Budd, an epidemiologist at the CDC, told Insider's Hilary Brueck.Budd said the CDC is monitoring how common the coinfections of the flu and COVID-19 are among hospitalized patients, and that it "looks to be very uncommon at this point.""This is not a situation where these two viruses are merging," Budd added. "It's the very unlucky individual who ends up with two respiratory-virus infections at the same time."The term "flurona" is not something that's used at the CDC, Budd said. But the term began to circulate after coinfections were <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/flurona-israel-records-its-first-case-of-patient-with-covid-and-flu-at-same-time/">first discovered in Israel</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-states-fluorona-flu-and-covid-19-kansas-mississippi-texas-2022-1">then in California</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-states-fluorona-flu-and-covid-19-kansas-mississippi-texas-2022-1">Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina.</a>Research from June 2021, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.681469/full">didn't find enough evidence</a> to suggest getting a coinfection is more dangerous than just COVID-19.There "is not enough evidence to suggest that such concurrent infections increase disease morbidity or mortality," scientists published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Medicine.

A 'flurona' infection — catching COVID-19 and the flu at the same time — appears to be 'very uncommon,' a CDC expert says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An unvaxxed <keyword id="11940480" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="los-angeles" source="Orion">Los Angeles</keyword> teen has tested positive for a co-infection of <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword> and the <keyword id="12048786" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="flu" source="Orion">flu</keyword>, according to the Los Angeles Times.</li><li>The co-infections have been happening since early in the pandemic and are now being dubbed "flurona."</li></ul>A Los Angeles teenager who was unvaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 has tested positive for a dual infection of both illnesses, dubbed "flurona," <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-05/l-a-county-detects-first-flurona-case-combination-of-flu-covid">according to the Los Angeles Times.</a>The co-infection was detected in a teenager who was returning from a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with his family, per the 911 COVID Testing center in Brentwood.The teenager reportedly had a runny nose after the trip and tested at the 911 COVID Testing center. Steve Farzam, the chief operating officer of the testing center said it was the first case of a co-infection that the testing center was aware of. Insider reached out the 911 COVID Testing center for additional comment."In and of itself, it's not overly concerning; however, it is concerning and can be problematic for someone who has preexisting medical conditions, anyone who is immunocompromised," Farzam told the Times, urging people to get both the flu and COVID-19 vaccine.Co-infections have been happening <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/covid-flu-same-time/620729/">since early in the pandemic</a>, and medical experts early on warned of a "twindemic" caused by the flu and COVID-19.The LA County Department of Public Health told the LA Times in a statement that co-infections were "exceedingly common" with the flu. Insider reached out to the LA County Public Health Department for comment."We are not tracking these occurrences systematically and cannot tell you how frequently they have occurred," health officials told the LA Times in a statement.For the past 35 years, flu activity in the US <a href="https://www.insider.com/flu-season">has peaked in February</a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The CDC has also recommended getting vaccinated against both illnesses, and reported that in 2021, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-16/its-flu-shot-time-heres-how-and-why-to-get-one">flu vaccination rates</a> were lower than usual.

You Searched For "flurona" and got 4 results

A man who had a rare case of 'flurona' describes feeling as if he had razor blades in his throat and 'wild' night sweats that cleared after 48 hours

Hilary Brueck

Cases of possible Flurona 'twindemic' — a combination of COVID-19 and flu — might be flying under the radar but isn't 'overly concerning,' expert says

Marianne Guenot

A 'flurona' infection — catching COVID-19 and the flu at the same time — appears to be 'very uncommon,' a CDC expert says

Hilary Brueck,Jake Epstein

Unvaccinated teen in Los Angeles tests positive for a co-infection of COVID-19 and the flu now being dubbed 'flurona'

Azmi Haroun

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