"What is ‘flurona’? What to know about co-infections of COVID-19 and the flu"
The Wall Street Journal interviewed Dr. Timothy Brewer about the possibility of contracting COVID-19 and flu at the same time.
“Flurona” isn’t a new COVID-19 variant. Nor is it a new disease or any kind of medical term.
The word flurona has gained popularity as a way to describe the condition of testing positive for both COVID-19 and the flu at the same time. As flu season picks up in the U.S. and in other countries, some hospitals and COVID-19 testing sites in California and Texas in the U.S., and overseas in Israel are reporting instances of people having both influenza and COVID-19.
Co-infections of two separate respiratory diseases aren’t a new phenomenon—and reports of people testing positive for COVID-19 and the flu date to the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, infectious-disease experts say.
Faculty Referenced by this Article
Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, is a Professor-in-Residence with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and Community Health Sciences
Dr. Joseph Davey is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years' experience leading research on HIV/STI services for women and children.
Dr. Anne Rimoin is a Professor of Epidemiology and holds the Gordon–Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health.
