From the flu and COVID-19 to Strep A and RSV, viral infections are quite common within the winter season, especially amongst children. Nevertheless, health experts at the moment are warning about one other threat – co-infections.

Each flu and strep A can turn into serious cases on their very own. Nevertheless, when each infections co-exist in the identical body, the outcomes will be fatal. As an example, a 5-year-old boy, from Greenville, Michigan, died on Recent Yr’s Eve after getting infected with the flu and strep A, in keeping with ABC News affiliated WZZM.

Flu or influenza messes up the body’s immune system, making it vulnerable to secondary infections.

“Influenza is a respiratory virus, meaning it infects the nasal passages, the passages of the back of your throat, after which the liner of the lungs,” Dr. Lori Handy, a physician within the division of infectious diseases at Kid’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News.

“Anytime those areas are particularly irritated, they break down a few of your normal immune defenses that may protect against secondary bacterial infections and the bacteria really reap the benefits of that breakdown and go ahead and enter your body,” Handy added.

There are various ways through which the immune system can collapse following a flu infection. Based on a Yale University study, flu causes the extent of serum glucocorticoid, a steroid hormone, to extend within the body. The serum is thought to suppress the immune system.

Studies have shown that the flu reduces the variety of macrophages – cells that kill microbes. Further, the flu virus allows bacteria to connect easily to respiratory cells.

“That permits bacteria to achieve entry into the body more easily and in order that’s a bonus that the bacteria can utilize if you happen to had an influenza infection,” Dr. Sam Dominguez, an infectious disease specialist at Kid’s Hospital Colorado, explained.

The flu generally comes on with sudden symptoms. The patient will normally have a really high fever of as much as 103 to 104 Fahrenheit. Other common symptoms include sore throat, nausea, body aches, vomiting and even diarrhea.

While pediatric co-infections aren’t that common, Dominguez added that hospitals are “definitely seeing more cases this 12 months than last 12 months.

The perfect bet to safeguard children against flu and its concomitant secondary infections is to get vaccinated against influenza.

“The influenza vaccine is superb at stopping severe disease when it comes to saving you from getting hospitalized or dying of influenza after which, second of all, it prevents you from getting the secondary bacterial infections on top of that,” Dominguez explained.

Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 47.5% of all children have received a flu vaccine as of December.