You surely have heard about the debate “COVID vs. flu – which one is worse?”. How about having both at the same time? Unfortunately, it’s possible. It’s called having flurona.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Maaike Swets from the University of Edinburgh, along with her colleagues, initiated research on over 300,000 people that were hospitalized in the UK. The researchers concluded that those suffering from flurona have more than twice a higher chance of dying compared to COVID infection alone, according to Express.co.uk.
One of the largest studies on COVID patients
Dr. Swets’ study is one of the largest of its kind, which makes it pretty reliable. According to information brought by worldometers.info, more than 6.1 million people worldwide died after getting sick because of COVID. But it seems that the COVID + influenza combination (flurona) is even deadlier. The researchers involved in the new study are also raising awareness about the need for testing against flu for COVID patients.
Dr. Swets explained as Express.co.uk quotes:
In the last two years we have frequently witnessed patients with COVID-19 become severely ill, at times leading to an ICU admission and the employment of an artificial ventilator to help with breathing.
That an influenza infection could give rise to a similar situation was already known, but less was understood about the outcomes of a double infection of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.
Another conclusion of the study that’s certainly very unpleasant is that those patients suffering from the combination between flu and COVID also had over four times more chances to require ventilation support by comparison with those who were only dealing with the coronavirus.
Worldometers.info also reveals that the USA, meaning the country that reported the most infections and deaths caused by COVID, is going through a serious reduction of infections with the coronavirus.