Co-infection of flu and corona can be very dangerous

A co-infection with flu and corona is rare, but can be dangerous. Those infected with both have a higher risk of serious illness.

Anyone who is infected with corona and flu viruses at the same time has a high risk of a severe course. Adults who are in the hospital with Sars-CoV-2 and influenza have to be ventilated four times as often as simple Covid patients. The death rate is 2.4 times higher.

According to The Lancet, an international research team analyzed data from over 305,000 adults who were hospitalized in the UK from February 6, 2020 to December 8, 2021 because of Covid.

Co-infections with influenza are rare but dangerous

Kenneth Baillie, Professor of Experimental Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, says: “We expect that Covid-19 will circulate alongside the flu, increasing the likelihood of co-infections. So we should change our testing strategy for hospitalized Covid-19 patients and test for flu much more broadly.”

The probability of being infected with more than one virus at the same time is relatively low. However, it is important to know that co-infections exist. Corona patients should therefore be tested for influenza in the hospital.