The rise in infections, combined with new cases of Omicron 2 and the advancement of the vaccination campaign against Influenza has caused alarm in the country.
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“We are concerned about influenza because it is already circulating” with this sentence the Health Minister Enrique Paris announced last weekend that vaccination against the virus was coming forward.
A not minor decision since it corresponds to a campaign that -pre-pandemic- was carried out in mid-March and this year start inoculation one week before.
“We don’t want to overload the primary care system by placing so many vaccines at once,” said the national health authority.
At the same time he added: “Influenza vaccines and the coronavirus vaccine can be given at the same time, that is, on the same day. The difference is that it has to be a vaccine in each armParis detailed.
From this announcement doubts grow about whether the ‘Flurona‘, a combination of Influenza and Coronavirus that was first seen in Israel last year, could get to Chile.
What is ‘Flurona’?
The Clinica Dávila, Felipe Rivera Bronchopulmonaryclarified that the ‘Flurona’ itself does not make a new virusbut it is a combination of Influenza and Coronavirus that attack alone and independently to the infected.
“It is not a new variant or that the viruses have been mixedRivera clarified.
The risks of contracting ‘Flurona’ they are seriouspoints out the professional, since it is the combination of two equally dangerous viruses.
“The sum of both is more serious” this since, as Rivera explains, they are “diseases that produce significant alterations in the function of certain organs”.
“Severity -in medical terms- means complexity of treatment and increased possibility of serious sequelae, disability and death”, details the doctor.
Can it mutate?
The professional said that the combination of these viruses It’s unlikely that causes a mutation, this since they are not the same.
“It is unlikely that the combination of the viruses will cause a mutation since they are different strains and the mutations occur in strains other than the original” but it always stays the same, explains the doctor.
‘Flurona’ in Chile
Regarding the possibility of this virus reaching the country, Rivera, a bronchopulmonary patient, was convincing: “most likely there are or could be“, said.
This is because, in his opinion, doctors are not as assiduous in investigating whether patients suffer from both viruses. So that “cases of ‘flurone’ may not have been detectedStill, he comments.
The doctor also noted that there must be suspected cases this “since we are in a high stage of coronavirus and influenza is already starting, so much so that the vaccine was brought forward,” he concluded.
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