Flurona – the name sounds scary but it’s not a new variant of Covid-19. It’s a word that was coined by the Israeli Outbreak Management Advisory Team in late 2020 when two pregnant woman were diagnosed with both Covid-19 and the flu (Stern).
On 5 January 2022 Dictionary.com added Flurona to its list of Technology and Science terms:
Flurona is an informal term for a case in which a person is simultaneously infected with both the flu and the COVID-19 virus. Flurona refers to a double infection (or co-infection)—two simultaneous but separate infections. It is not a single disease or a new strain of COVID-19.
Flurona is clearly a cause for concern for the medical community as rising numbers of influenza cases and another wave of Covid-19 have the potential to overwhelm hospitals. When news broke of “flurona” many were concerned as an article in the The Washington Post states that “people around the world kicked off 2022 by searching for more information about ‘flurona,’ after Israel reported that two young pregnant women had tested positive for both the coronavirus and the flu” (Hassan).
Here’s a useful video that goes into more detail about what Flurona is and how you can minimize your risk of catching both Covid-19 and influenza:
Social Media Trends as of June 26, 2022
Facebook #flurona: 11,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #flurona: 9,210 posts
TikTok #flurona: 47.7 million views
YouTube #flurona: 508 videos and 334 channels
Google Trends: flurona appeared during the last week of December 2021 and peaked a week later at the beginning of 2022 as many people searched online for information about this condition.
Sources:
Art N More. “New disease, Flurona, double infection of covid and flu” image. Adobe.com. File no: 477861400.
“Flurona.” Dictionary.com. URL: https://www.dictionary.com/e/tech-science/flurona/.
Hassan, Jennifer. “What is ‘flurona’? Coronavirus and influenza co-infections reported as omicron surges.” The Washington Post. January 5, 2022. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/05/flurona-coronavirus-flu-symptoms/.
Stern, Aryeh. “Israel reports first case of ‘Flurona’.” Hamodia.com. December 30, 2021. URL: https://hamodia.com/2021/12/30/israel-reports-first-case-of-flurona/.
USA Today. “‘Flurona’: What to know about co-infections with COVID-19 and the flu.” YouTube. January 5, 2022. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r6t8GQ2HhM.