'Flurona' is already in Hungary
The Omicron variant has been detected in 78% of samples tested by Neumann Labs, said managing director Miklós Nyíri, adding that they have found 283 such samples so far.
Over the past ten days, two people were infected with both the seasonal flu and COVID-19. Both young Budapest residents got the Omicron variant of coronavirus. One of the cases still awaits confirmation and there is no news about their condition.
Israel has recently confirmed its first case of the dual infection (found in an unvaccinated pregnant woman who had mild symptoms), and some reports suggested this marked the first such case in the world. Reports of patients with both flu and COVID-19 surfaced in the US as early as spring 2020, though.
Health officials said it was likely many others have been infected with both viruses, but have not yet been diagnosed, the Ynet news site reported.
The identified case of “flurona,” as some have dubbed it, was relatively mild, according to doctors at Beilinson.
“The disease is the same disease. They’re viral and cause difficulty breathing since both attack the upper respiratory tract,” The Times of Israel cited Arnon Vizhnitser, the director of the hospital’s gynecology department, as saying.
Hungary's National Public Health Centre (NNK) keeps confirming researchers' findings. Nyírő added that Omicron is spreading rapidly in Hungary, just like elsewhere in the world. The flu epidemic is not severe yet, every fourth or fifth test of 1,000 comes back positive, he added.
The flu epidemic has not even started yet, and due to the rapid transmission of Omicron the fifth wave [in the coronavirus pandemic] is probable
, Nyíri said in a statement.
Cover photo: Getty Images.
