Health experts warn vs ‘flurona’

The silver lining with the flu and Covid-19 is that they both have vaccines

Health experts in the country and the head of the Federation of Senior Citizens Association (FSCA) has called on the national government to provide a stronger and more intensive flu vaccination program amid the latest surge in Covid-19 cases and rainy-day diseases.

FSCA disease expert Dr. Arthur Dessi Roman said that due to the emergence of “flurona” — described as a co-infection of flu viruses and the coronavirus disease — there is really a need to increase inoculation efforts to protect the public from deadly respiratory diseases.

“We have instruments that can be used to fight flu,” said Roman in a forum. “The silver lining with the flu and Covid-19 is that they both have vaccines.”

Meantime, TB Assembly of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology head Dr. Jennifer Wi cited statistics from the World Health Organization which revealed that one billion people get infected by the virus every year, and 650,000 die due to severe complications from the flu, such as pneumonia, organ failure, and heart attacks.

She emphasized that getting “flurona” would be highly disastrous should the individual be unvaccinated against either virus.

“The resistance is low so prone to bacterial infection and if bacterial andviral infection combined, that’s a catastrophic event for us,” said Wi when asked about the risks of coinfection.

Roman, on the other hand, stressed that the easiest, most effective and most preventive measure against viruses of any sort is to get vaccinated as soon as possible. He recommends that everyone older than six months of age get vaccinated against the flu yearly.