The flu is making a comeback, while the Covid figures are increasing very sharply. While these two viruses have nothing in common, other than similar symptoms, can you catch them at the same time?
Catching the Covid and the flu at the same time, a stroke of bad luck which remains possible in this period of strong epidemic recovery, concerning these two viruses.
L’WHO had confirmed last September that he was “possible to catch both diseases at the same time”. In France, eight cases of these two joint infections have been identified, reports Le Parisien. In January, an Israeli case was reported as the first case of “flurona”, the contraction of “flu”, flu in English and corona, for coronavirus.
Co-infection facilitated by Omicron?
If this case of flurona had caused a stir, it should not be seen as the emergence of a new threat. In effect, Liberation interviewed Alexandre Bleibtreu, infectiologist in the infectious and tropical diseases department of the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital on this subject. He recalls that it is “possible to be infected by two pathogens at the same time, whether it is two viruses or a virus and a bacterium.”
According to him, moreover, the Israeli case reported in January was not a first since he claims to have had one in his hospital, “from the first wave of Covid”.
In contrast, the emergence of Omicron could favor these cases of co-infection, because it would more easily block what scientists call “viral interference”, a natural immune response that occurs when you are infected with a virus. “We have the impression that omicron is able to extinguish this interfering function quite significantly”, indicated Bruno Lina, professor of virology.
In contrast, the studies cited by the Parisian report that cases of co-infection do not seem to lead to an increased risk of severe disease.
Risk of confusing the two diseases
Still, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish the flu and the Covid, because even if they are indeed two different viruses, their symptoms are similar, as detailed on the health insurance site. Influenza is characterized by a “high fever, chills, cough, joint and muscle pain, fatigue”and the main symptoms of Covid are fever, respiratory symptoms, body aches, headaches and unusual tiredness, not to mention the possible loss of taste and smell.
The symptoms are so similar that Public Health France recalls in its latest epidemiological bulletin that “certain indicators used for influenza surveillance are syndromic and therefore do not rely on biological confirmation of influenza infection. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is therefore likely that some of the cases of influenza-like illnesses reported by our influenza surveillance are due to Covid-19 and not to influenza.“.
If you have symptoms, the best option to find out which virus has infected you is to get tested. Faced with the joint spread of the flu and Covid at the moment, many pharmacies also offer vaccination against both viruses.