The Ministry of Health reported this Saturday that the “flurona” is not a new variant of the coronavirus, but involves coinfection between the virus del SARS CoV-2 and that of influenza and assured that “it does not represent an extraordinary situation in the framework of the pandemic.”
“Given the recent spread of a case of co-infection between the SARS CoV-2 and influenza virus, a combination that has also been called ‘flurona‘, the Ministry of Health of the Nation informs that does not represent an extraordinary situation in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, since it is common to see co-detections of two respiratory viruses,” the health portfolio said in a statement.
The text stressed that “this does not represent the appearance of a new variant or strain of the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease.”
The Orlando Alassia Children’s Hospital in Santa Fe confirmed Thursday that a 3-year-old boy who was admitted to intensive care with a picture of epilepsy, he was diagnosed with fluorone and the doctors explained that they detected coronavirus and influenza at the same time.
The undersecretary of Equity of the Ministry of Health of that province, Romina Carrizo, added that it was a “finding”, since it was detected through a specific study when entering therapy because he was not hospitalized “for respiratory pathologies but rather a basic one” that the patient already had.
The first case of flurone in the world was reported on January 2 in Israel and it was a pregnant woman who was vaccinated against Covid, while days later the government of Catalonia reported “sporadic cases” of this combination registered in its territory and the Brazilian authorities reported four cases.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health explained that “the co-circulation of Covid-19 and influenza can occur particularly in the autumn and winter months” but he maintained that as of the last weeks of 2021 the activity of the influenza virus “is increasing in the northern hemisphere and in some countries of the Andean subregion and the Southern Cone”.
“Given the current dynamics of circulation, it is likely to detect viral co-infections” in this period, added the official text.
However, it was clarified that “since the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 in the Americas region, influenza activity has been low.”
“During the past year, the prevalence of influenza coinfection among patients with Covid-19 has been estimated at 0.8%, although in the future this may vary depending on the transmission and circulation of the different respiratory viruses,” he added. the notice.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in Argentina, in March 2020, 13 co-infections of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza have been detected and registered in the National Health Surveillance System (SNVS).
Meanwhile, three other co-infections detected in the last two weeks of 2021 were influenza A H3N2 and respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV-OC43), respectively.