In 2020, there are already double infections of the new crown flu in the United States! Will it bring about a "super virus"?

A few days ago, there were reports that Israel found the world's first case of co-infection with the new crown virus and influenza virus, and some experts said with concern that this co-infection may lead to more serious diseases, and even some people are worried that a new super virus may be produced. How serious is co-infection? Still, we must look at the analysis from a scientific point of view.

First, it is not rigorous to say that Israel has found the world's first case of co-infection with the new coronavirus and the influenza virus.

On January 2, the Times of Israel reported that a pregnant woman in the country had been found infected with both the new crown and influenza viruses, the first case of "co-infection" in Israel. In particular, the media noted that "some reports say that this is the first case of double infection of this kind in the world, but as early as the spring of 2020, there were reports of influenza and new crown co-patients in the United States.".

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In fact, the joint infection of the new crown virus and the influenza virus is not uncommon, and it has appeared many times before.

In late February 2020, a patient in Queens, New York, USA, tested positive for influenza and the new crown virus successively;

In April of the same year, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in the United States also found a co-infected person with influenza and the new coronavirus in the testing of samples of patients with respiratory diseases in northern California;

In May, researchers at Barcelona Hospital in Spain wrote in the journal The Lancet that four co-infection cases had been found at the same time, and called on the medical community to strengthen research on the phenomenon.

According to the statistics of researchers at the Alberts Medical University in Iran, by September 2020, researchers from Iran, Spain, Italy, France, the United States, Switzerland, Japan and other countries have reported at least 79 cases of co-patients with new crown and influenza. In June, researchers at King Fahd Hospital in Saudi Arabia published a paper in which they tested 48 COVID-19 patients admitted to treatment and found that 17 of them were also infected with influenza A(H1N1).

In addition, whether the co-infection of the new crown and influenza viruses will aggravate the disease is still a question worthy of attention.

Many studies suggest that co-infection with multiple viruses may exacerbate the condition. Saudi researchers have observed that patients co-infected with COVID-19 and influenza A(H1N1) are more severely ill, with higher admission to the ICU and case fatality rates, possibly due to influenza virus infection exacerbating the immune storm. In October 2020, researchers at Wuhan University published a preprint paper saying that experiments showed that influenza viruses can promote the entry of the new crown virus into cells, bringing greater viral load and more serious lung damage to mice.

But there are also experts who have a different view. In October 2020, researchers at St. Banabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York City, compared the medical data of 18 patients co-infected with the new crown and influenza viruses with patients infected with only the new crown virus, and the results showed that there was no significant difference between the two in indicators such as mortality.

In addition to potentially affecting the severity of the condition, experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that contracting COVID-19 and influenza viruses increases treatment difficulties, such as corticosteroids that can be used to treat severe cases of COVID-19, but may increase the risk of death in people with influenza.

So, will the new crown virus and the flu virus recombine in the human body to produce a "super virus"?

There is no research to support the recombination of the new coronavirus and influenza viruses. Coronaviruses and influenza viruses are two completely different viruses, and viral recombination usually occurs between similar viruses. However, this possibility cannot be completely ruled out, and in 1988, Dutch scientists published a paper saying that they found traces of coronavirus and influenza C virus recombination on the mouse hepatitis virus MHV-A59.

In short, the global COVID-19 pandemic has made us nervous, but under the guidance of science, please do not panic too much.

Source: Science and Technology Daily reporter Hu Dingkun

Original title: The new crown flu double infection has long appeared! Will it bring about a "super virus"?

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