As the more contagious Omicron variant increased the number of infected in Brazil, the country is now being faced with a new threat - a back-to-back infection of the coronavirus and influence now dubbed "flurona."
Health authorities said they had detected several cases of people infected with COVID-19 and influenza in at least three separate states. Experts said that the number is likely to grow in the coming weeks as Omicron continues to spread throughout the country.
Flurona cases had also been reported in the Middle East. Israel health authorities had confirmed that they had detected the first case of the combination diagnosis in a pregnant woman.
Sao Paolo's health secretary of state, Jean Gorinchteyn, said the type of double infection did not come as a surprise given the proliferation of two highly infectious viruses. Gorinchteyn said that the cases will likely rise as people in the nation are now being less careful and unwilling to adhere to strict pandemic restrictions.
Gorinchteyn said that she expects Omicron to become the dominant strain over the next two weeks. Around 60% of cases in Sao Paulo are omicron infections.
The fatality rate or health implications of the type of back-to-back infection is still largely unknown. The three viruses proliferated independently, according to public health specialist Claudio Maierovitch, a former head of the national health office. He said those infected with two distinct strains of the COVID-19 at the same time is a more concerning situation.
The director of Brazil's Infectious Disease Society, Estevao Urbano, recognized the possibility of someone with influenza and COVID requiring greater treatment. Urbano said that the nation's hospital system would be much more burdened by these kinds of infections.
Brazil has seen a relative slowdown in COVID-19 cases, albeit data has been marred by a chronic outage of the Health Ministry's servers after it was targeted by hackers last month. Only a fraction of the more than 100,000 cases reported at the height of the pandemic have been confirmed, and the mortality rate has hovered below 150 per day.
There's plenty of evidence influenza is on the rise. Sao Paulo, one of Latin America's major cities, saw instances of respiratory sickness climb above 238,000 in December, more than double the previous month. The statistics are projected to climb following two weeks of year-end celebrations that crowded family gatherings and tourism sites.
Demand for influenza tests increased in December at Diagnosticos da America SA, one of the country's top diagnostics providers. More than 22% of them returned positive, up from 9% the previous month.
