"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. Anne Rimoin is a Professor of Epidemiology and holds the Gordon–Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health.
Dr. Joseph Davey is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years' experience leading research on HIV/STI services for women and children.
