The first confirmed case of the “flurona” — the flu and coronavirus combination — has been confirmed in Los Angeles County.
Officials at a COVID-19 testing site Brentwood, in Northern California, confirmed the unique case after a child tested positive for both Influenza A and SARS-CoV-2, a local news outlet reported.
The child’s mother also received a coronavirus-positive test the following day.
The individuals were being tested per traveling protocols as they recently returned from a family vacation in Cabo San Lucas, a resort city in Mexico. Other members of their family have tested negative.
Los Angeles County saw more than 20,000 daily new cases of the omicron coronavirus this week, more than triple the number of cases reported last week, the L.A. County Health Department said in an emailed statement. And, similarities between COVID-19, the flu or the common cold have made differentiating between the viruses difficult for patients who have not yet been tested.
Both Influenza and COVID-19 bring symptoms like a sore throat, coughing, body aches, a runny nose and fever — but a combination of respiratory diseases is not uncommon.
“Concurrent infection with more than one respiratory virus is exceedingly common and there is no reason to expect that SARS-CoV-2 should be an exception to this rule. We have seen SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza multiplex test results where both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 were positive,” the LA County Health Department said, FOX 11 of Los Angeles reported.
The respiratory viruses spread similarly in the air through “very, very small droplets that don’t settle by gravity,” David Edwards, an aerosol scientist and faculty member at Harvard University, told Fox News.
“Can it happen? Absolutely. And will it happen more? I’m sure it will,” Edwards continued. “But people should recognize that the probability of being infected by both viruses will be a lot lower than the probability of being infected by either one of them.”
The “flurona” combination has been confirmed in North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas and Israel.