California resident gets co-infection with flu and coronavirus. Is this rare?
(KYMA, KECY/NBC) - A person has tested positive for both the flu and the coronavirus in Solano County, California, the county health department said.
Such co-infection is so far rare and is the first such case to be reported in the county but not the country. At least two such cases have been reported, in Texas and Northern California.
Experts have warned that if Covid-19 cases remain high as flu season begins, the U.S. could face a “twindemic,” with both viruses circulating at high levels.
Much of that concern has been focused on health care systems, which could be overwhelmed with a surge of both Covid-19 patients and flu patients.
If both viruses begin circulating at high levels, it raises the risk of being infected with both at the same time.
“With the likelihood of both Covid-19 and seasonal flu activity this winter, contracting either disease may weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to the other disease,” Dr. Bela T. Matyas, Solano County Health Officer, said Thursday in a statement.
Little information was provided about the Solano County patient, except that the individual is under 65. The first confirmed case of community spread of Covid-19 in the United States was reported in the county in February.
In March, a Texas doctor reportedly fell ill with both viruses at the same time. And a research letter published in April in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted a case of flu-coronavirus co-infection in Northern California.
It's not yet clear how common co-infections will be.
"We very much hope that it will not be," Dr. Tara Bouton, an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, predicted it's only a matter of time before there are similar cases.
