Jamie Grayson.
Co-infections of the flu and COVID-19 will likely become more common this flu season.
The man who had flu and COVID-19 at the same time in December said the worst of it lasted about 48 hours.
Experts say getting a flu vaccine will reduce your chances of getting co-infection.
He didn't think much of it when he first started to feel unwell.
The baby gear expert told Insider that it felt like he had a sore throat. I'd just been yelling at bars.
He started to wonder if this was more than just a case of laryngitis, as his symptoms got worse over the course of a few days. He had just been in New York City and he said it was like a hotbed of Omicron.
"As I started to cough, I was like,'mmm, something's wrong'."
He went to a clinic to get tested, and started to wonder if he had picked up COVID-19.
"I changed my flight back home because I wanted to make sure I got a negative test before I got on the plane," he said. It felt responsible.
He didn't get a flu shot this year because he didn't have a booster shot yet, but he is fully protected against the coronaviruses. He was tested for the flu and the coronaviruses at the clinic, based on his symptoms and vaccination status. He was surprised that both tests turned up positive.
You may have heard of "flurona", a disease that experts call a "co-infection", but you may not know it. If you're not up to date on your flu and COVID-19 vaccinations this winter, you'll be at risk for a co-infection like the one that happened with Grayson.
He said it was mild and he was luckily vaccine free. To be honest, I don't understand what the big deal is.
Scientists call it a co-infection.
"Flurona is not a term that we use at CDC," said an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The term popped up recently after a number of coronaviruses-influenza co-infections were diagnosed, first in Israel and then in California, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Most infectious disease experts agree that a co-infection is not a big deal 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 we haven't heard much about flu-COVID-19 co-infections before now is because the flu barely circulates at all last year, as well as widespread masking and social distancing measures.
Budd says that co-infections could happen with any two viruses that are circulating at the same time. We've seen it play out with different strains of flu before. Budd said that this is not a situation where the two viruses are merging. One unlucky person has gotten infections with two different viruses.
The CDC has a hospital system called Flusurv-NET that may be able to give some clues as to how common flu-coronaviruses are among hospitalized patients.
"That looks to be very uncommon at this point, but it's certainly something that we're going to keep an eye on through that system," she said.
It is difficult to disentangle the symptoms of Flu and Covid.
Jamie Grayson was pictured when he didn't have flurona.
The worst symptoms of the dual coronaviruses-flu infections lasted for about two to three days for one of the lucky recipients.
He said he had a sore throat that felt like razor blades were shoved down his throat, and he had wild body chills and sweats.
He started to feel better after that patch, though he had a "remnant cough."
He was isolated for 10 days to stop the spread of his illnesses. He was told by the clinic to keep an eye on his respiratory symptoms, and to seek emergency care if he had trouble breathing. Since he didn't, he rested, drank and watched a lot of Food Network.
He still has his sense of smell, which used to be a hallmark sign of contracting COVID, but are becoming less common now.
He described them as "full body drench, one leg under a blanket, the rest of my body sprawled out on the bed, fully uncomfortable, terrible."
How your body responds to both flu and COVID-19 at the same time.
It is possible to get sick with more than one virus at a time. It depends on the person and the viruses involved.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, researchers in Norway did some research that suggested seasonal flu infections could be prevented in children. In some cases, being exposed to one strain of the flu may prevent you from catching another strain at the same time.
Dr. Carolyn Goldzweig, chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, said that the level of concern practitioners have for a coinfection depends on the patient.
A patient who has a normal immune capacity is likely to mount an immune reaction and try and fight off both viruses. It's just a symptom of treatment for both. It's good to have some kind of medicine to help with the aches and pains.
Budd agreed that the concern is that the patient is very vulnerable to the flu or COVID-19. If you are prone to a more severe infection with either of the viruses, it's likely that you will have a harder time handling it.
For high risk patients, doctors can prescribe antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu for flu. They can help prevent hospitalization and death in vulnerable patients.
How to stop flurona.
Both Budd and Goldzweig said that the first measure to emphasize is vaccination. If you haven't gotten your vaccine yet, it's not too late.
The flu shot and the COVID-19 vaccines are not perfect matches for what's circulating right now, but they make it less likely that you'll get a coinfection.
A lot of people don't get the flu vaccine. The flu can put you out of work for weeks, and it really can floor you.
He says he's very happy that he got his vaccine before he got the flu.
He said that he knows people who have not beenvaccinated who have been sick for two weeks with the disease.
He said if he hadn't been shot, he didn't know what the flu and COVID would have done.
Business Insider has an original article.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
