A new study from the University of Edinburgh has found that patients who are hospitalized with both the flu and COVID-19 are at a significantly higher risk of severe illness and death than those who have only one of the viruses. The study, published in The Lancet, analyzed health data from over 305,000 hospital patients in the UK who were treated for COVID-19 between February 2020 and December 2021. Of those patients, 2.28% were tested for viral co-infection, and 8.4% of those tested positive for a co-infection. Patients with a co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses were 2.4 times more likely to die than those with only COVID-19, and four times more likely to require artificial ventilation.
According to Maaike Swets, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leiden, the combination of COVID-19 and the flu could become a major problem in the coming months as more countries reduce social distancing and containment measures. This could lead to not only rising COVID-19 cases but also a flu epidemic by the summer. Professor Kenneth Baillie, an experimental medicine professor at the University of Edinburgh, emphasizes the importance of changing the testing strategy for COVID-19 patients in hospitals to include testing for the flu. He also notes that the data clearly shows that the combination of COVID-19 and the flu is particularly dangerous.
Professor Calum Semple, an outbreak medicine and child health professor at the University of Liverpool, stresses the importance of being fully vaccinated against both viruses. A recent study from the University of Bristol showed that both vaccinations can be given together. The findings of the Edinburgh study highlight the need for continued vigilance and caution in the face of the ongoing pandemic and the potential for co-infections to cause severe illness and death.
