![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/flurona-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA Cape Coral man has been diagnosed with one of the first cases of \u201cflurona\u201d \u2014 a term referring to people who are simultaneously infected with both the flu and coronavirus \u2014 in Florida, as well as the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erick Salazar told NBC 2 that he hadn\u2019t even heard of \u201cflurona\u201d before testing positive for both viruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot until Monday when I got the results,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen (the doctor) came back she was like \u2018Sorry buddy, you actually have both<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flu and the coronavirus have similar symptoms, including fever, cough, fatigue, runny nose, sore throat, and muscle and body aches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottom of Form<\/p>\n\n\n\n Salazar said his worst symptoms were fatigue and lack of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Florida hospitals have also seen some of these so-called cases of \u201cflurona\u201d in children, reports said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious disease specialist in Wellington, told WPTV, “We’re seeing it more in children<\/a> because, A, children are less vaccinated against COVID, particularly younger children. B, children are less vaccinated against flu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFlurona\u201d can be dangerous for children<\/a>, especially those under 2 years old, Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, told ABC Action News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He urges parents to get their children, especially younger children, vaccinated against the flu. The COVID-19 vaccine is only available to kids 5 and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While much of the U.S., including Florida, is dealing with a surge in coronavirus cases, driven by the omicron variant\u2019s rapid spread, flu is also on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About 400,000 COVID-19 cases were reported in Florida from Dec. 30 to Jan. 5, including 67,000 for Wednesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coronavirus-related hospitalizations have also more than doubled over the past week, the Florida Hospital Association said. There were 8,062 hospitalizations confirmed in the state Thursday compared to 4,001 one week earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, influenza activity is low in Florida, but increasing for the first time since March 2020<\/a>, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Florida Department of Health\u2019s latest \u201cFlu Review\u201d for Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Most of the state saw mild flu activity that week, while DeSoto, Polk, Putnam and Suwanee counties saw moderate activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts say that people could be more susceptible to the flu this year as they move away from strict COVID-19 protocols, including wearing face masks and social distancing, that also protected them from other viruses last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s interesting that after you have a year with a very, very low or not at all influenza activity<\/a>, the next year \u2014 because people were less exposed \u2014 it makes them more vulnerable,” Nadav Davidovitch, director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University in Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cases of a double flu and COVID-19 diagnosis have been reported in the U.S., Israel, Brazil, the Philippines and Hungary so far, the Washington Post reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n