MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Cases of the flu are on the rise across the U.S. and new research shows being hospitalized with the flu and COVID at the same time could double your risk of death.
“I think if you’re unlucky enough to get COVID and flu at the same time, what our evidence tells us is that you’re at markedly increased risk of severe illness,” said Dr. Kenneth Baillie, a professor of experimental medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
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Researchers in Scotland, England and the Netherlands studied 305,000 adults hospitalized with COVID within the last two years.
–6,965 of them had COVID along with another viral infection.
–227 patients had both COVID and the flu.
Dr. Baillie said patients with both COVID and the flu were in the most danger.
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“We found that if you have COVID, and you also test positive for flu in hospital, then your risk of dying is doubled, and your risk of needing a life support machine or a ventilator is quadrupled,” he said.
Doctors say because both viruses like to attack the same part of the body, the throat, behind the nose, and down into the lungs, testing for the combination is crucial.
“The important message for doctors is we should test patients in hospital for both COVID and flu,” Dr. Baillie said.
As both viruses circulate, researchers expect the mixed infection to become more common, and they say anyone offered vaccines against COVID or the flu should get them.
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The new findings have been published in The Lancet.
