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)
6 Responses
That’s because it’s the same sickness
not new, its because doctors would for the most part not test for flu, only corona. If you tested negative, or positive, they would send you home. If you would ask for a flu test, then, maybe they would give one, if you tested negative for covid.
if you tested positive for covid, they would never do a flu test, because they would attribute the symptoms to covid, and covid only.
hu bachu
around 36,000 americans die from the flu each year. Compare that to the 800,000 that died from covid
Why do people say covid is not so bad, it’s the same as the flu?!
During last year, there was so much more covid than flu that someone positive to covid did not need a flu test, especially given how much more dangerous covid was.
Currently, UK estimates for the last week that 75% of people who have “cold symptoms” are actually having Covid. This was 50% a week ago. This is good news as “cold symptoms” mean mostly that immune system is noticing the virus and reacting to it based on vaccines or previous infections.
Maybe “flurona” needs a new vaccine???