What's more, when RSV levels in a population tend to be high, levels of flu tend to be low, and vice versa. RSV and influenza virus are a good example of that, says Meskill, explaining that when both try to infect the same cell, one will win.
Some epidemiological research shows that respiratory viruses can compete with each other in a way that means one virus can suppress the spread of another. "The studies looking at previous coronavirus infection with influenza are so sparse it's really hard to know," adds Meskill, saying that her gut reaction is that "we're going to see co-infections, we are going to see patients positive for both" flu virus and the coronavirus. Shots - Health News Scientists Explore Why Some People Are Able To Live With An Infection Unscathed "Or, of course, having two illnesses in a row that affected the lungs would make the respiratory failure more severe." "It's likely with both viruses at the same time, the severity of respiratory failure would be greater," says Matthay. Still, "it is quite possible and likely that the two viruses could infect a patient at the same time or, for that matter, sequentially: one month, one virus, and the next month, the other virus," says Michael Matthay, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.īoth viruses can cause dangerous inflammation in the lungs that can fill the airspaces with fluid, making it difficult to breathe, he notes. At least a couple of dozen cases have been reported - although that's not a lot, given that over 26 million people have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
With the annual flu season about to start, it's still unclear exactly how influenza virus will interact with the coronavirus if a person has both viruses.ĭoctors around the world have seen some patients who tested positive for both influenza virus and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This negative-stained transmission electron micrograph depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle, or virion.
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