Flurone case detected in Santa Fe: it is a one-year-old baby who is in intensive care

A one-year-old baby who is hospitalized in therapy at the Orlando Alassia Children’s Hospital in Santa Fe for epilepsy was diagnosed with flurone, a condition that brings together both the symptoms of the coronavirus and those of the flu. This is the first case detected in that hospital, said the director of the care center, Osvaldo González Carrillo, although he clarified that it was “a finding” because not all patients are performed “the complete respiratory panel.” The child was admitted with an “epileptic state with a history”, so he was admitted to intensive care, where the necessary medical studies were carried out. The detection of coronavirus and influenza was given from these analyzes, since the child did not present symptoms of any of the respiratory diseases and the Picture of Covid-19 “is mild.” This patient was hospitalized with coronavirus and influenza, not for those causes,” González Carrillo clarified, in dialogue with LT9 radio of Santa Fe.The Ministry of Health of the province confirmed the case and anticipated that they will provide details through the Secretary of Equity of that portfolio, Romina Carrizo, and the director of Third Level of Care, Rodrigo Mediavilla.The director of the Alassia hospital reported that there were 21 children hospitalized with coronavirus, of which 7 are between intensive care and neonatology. In addition, of the total, 14 (66%) are under 3 years old, that is, they do not meet the conditions to be inoculated. The rest are children over 3 years old who did not receive any vaccine or do not have the complete scheme. What is flurone
It is a picture that brings together both the symptoms of the coronavirus and those of the flu (“flue”, in English), with controls that test positive for both diseases. However, it is not a new virus but is something that in infectology is known as co-infection, that is, the simultaneous detection of multiple pathogens (such as viruses, bacteria and parasites) in the same person. The first known case was recorded in Israel, where a pregnant woman was admitted to the hospital to give birth and had to be treated with a combination of drugs for the manifestations of the coronavirus and flu. The patient, 30 years old, was not vaccinated against any of these pathologies but was discharged and is in good health. However, in Spain, a team of researchers from the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid had already documented the first case of simultaneous infection in April 2021, almost a year ago. According to the study’s authors, that winter’s influenza A epidemic may have masked early coronavirus cases. And more broadly, there were cases of co-infection on several other occasions: during the influenza A pandemic, for example, some analyses observed that co-infection with rhinovirus, the viruses that cause the common cold, caused milder illness than that produced by other coronaviruses (other than SARS CoV-2) such as those that cause colds. Other examples include co-infection of liver cells with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus, fungal co-infection with autoimmune polyglandular syndrome and HIV-syphilis co-infection.On flurone, WHO epidemiologist Abdi Mahamud said at a press conference that these are viruses of completely different species,  that use different receptors to infect and between which there is not much interaction. In addition, he clarified that the combination of influenza and coronavirus cannot generate a combined mutation, but that both diseases affect the upper respiratory system, so it does imply a health risk. On the other hand, several experts agree that with the arrival of autumn there could be more risk of more cases of “flurone” co-infections in South America and that vaccination against influenza, pneumococcus and vaccination against Covid-19 are the most important tools today.

Original source in Spanish