A new mother in Israel this week tested positive for COVID and the flu, Israel’s first documented case of the “flurona,” Ynet reported on Thursday.

The woman, who went into labor this week at Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikva, was tested for both illnesses upon arriving at the hospital and the results were both positive, even after being tested a second time.

The woman, in her 30s, is unvaccinated but Baruch Hashem is experiencing only mild symptoms after being treated with a drug combination targeting both illnesses. She was released from the hospital later on Thursday.

Health officials believe that it’s likely that many other patients also contracted both illnesses at the same time but weren’t diagnosed.

“Last year, we didn’t witness flu cases among pregnant or birthing women,” said Prof. Arnon Vizhnitser, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist and the director of the hospitals’ Gynecology Department.

“Today, we are seeing cases of both coronavirus and the flu that are starting to rear their head. We are seeing more and more pregnant women with the flu. It is definitely a great challenge dealing with a woman who comes in with a fever at childbirth and you don’t know if it’s coronavirus or the flu. Both illnesses cause respiratory symptoms.”

Prof. Vizhnitser said the new mother is not seriously ill. “She was diagnosed with the flu and coronavirus as soon as she arrived. Both tests came back positive, even after we checked again. The disease is the same disease; they’re viral and cause difficulty breathing since both attack the upper respiratory tract.”

Israel is currently experiencing a skyrocketing number of flu cases, with the number of hospitalized flu patients, currently about 2,000, up by 70% within eight days.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)