Deadly Combination: COVID-19 Mixed With Flu Have Higher Fatality Risk

Adolescents in the hospital who have Covid-19 and the flu at the same time have a substantially higher risk of severe sickness and mortality than individuals who have Covid-19 alone or in combination with other viruses, according to the study.

Experts discovered that patients who had SARS-CoV-2, which produces Covid-19, and influenza viruses co-infected were nearly four times more likely to require ventilator assistance and 2.4 percent more likely to suffer than if they only had Covid-19.

The findings, according to the researchers, underline the necessity for more flu testing of Covid-19 patients in hospitals, as well as the need for comprehensive immunization against both Covid-19 and the flu.

COVID 19 and flu are a deadly combination

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The findings were discovered in a study of more than 305,000 hospitalized patients with Covid-19 by a team from the Universities of Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leiden University, and Imperial College London.

The study, conducted as part of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection investigation, which was carried out as part of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium's (ISARIC) Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium, is the broadest ever carried out on people who have been infected with Covid-19 and other chronic respiratory pathogens.

In preparation for a pandemic like this, ISARIC research was created in 2013.

The scientists looked at data from Covid-19 patients who were hospitalized in the United Kingdom between February 6, 2020, and December 8, 2021.

For 6965 Covid-19 patients, test results for respiratory virus co-infections were collected. There were 227 of them who also had the influenza virus and had much worse results.

"In the previous two years, we have repeatedly watched patients with Covid-19 get seriously unwell, at times leading to ICU hospitalization and the use of an artificial ventilator to help with breathing," said Dr. Maaike Swets, a Ph.D. student at the University of Edinburgh and Leiden, as per ScienceDaily.

"We are seeing a surge in the regular seasonal respiratory viruses as people return to normal mingling," said Professor Calum Semple, Professor of Child Health and Outbreak Medicine at the University of Liverpool.

As a result, we may anticipate flu to circulate alongside Covid-19 this winter, and we were astonished to find that when persons were infected by both flu and Covid-19 viruses, the chance of mortality more than doubled.

It is now critical that individuals get completely vaccinated and boosted against both viruses as soon as possible, rather than waiting until it is too late, as per Daily Record.

It's important to be aware

"Recognizing the repercussions of double illnesses of SARS-CoV-2 and other ventilatory viruses is critical because they have consequences for the patient, healthcare facilities, and ICU capacity all through seasons when SARS-CoV-2 and influenza circulate together," said Dr Geert Groeneveld of Leiden University Medical Center's infectious diseases department.

"Becoming afflicted with more than one virus is just not very frequent, but it's crucial to remain aware that co-infections can happen," said Professor Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London.

The medications that protect against Covid-19 and flu are separate, and people require both, as does the manner in which these two viral diseases are addressed, so it's necessary to check for other viruses occasionally when you have a diagnosis in someone who is taken to the hospital with flu.