Family battles COVID-19, then Influenza A as flu-like illnesses rise

“It started with my husband. Fever, terrible headache, and a really bad flu. Then me. Then our house help,” she wrote. The illness eventually reached her elderly parents.

Her mother became worse, developed an elevated heart rate and was taken to the hospital. Tests eventually showed she was positive for COVID-19 and she was admitted for monitoring.

The family thought the ordeal was over.

About a week after recovering, however, another round began.

Her husband became sick again, followed by her and the children. This time, her daughter Bea developed a high fever and severe dry cough before experiencing difficulty breathing, prompting the family to rush her to the emergency room.

Her lungs were reportedly clear. But her test came back positive for Influenza A.

“Two different respiratory viruses. Two rounds of illness,” the mother wrote.

Her family’s experience cannot establish a broader disease trend by itself, but it comes as Philippine health surveillance shows influenza-like illness, or ILI, increasing during the rainy-season flu period.

Cases are rising

Department of Health data showed 99,037 ILI cases from January 4 to September 19, although this remained 22 percent lower than the 127,148 cases recorded during the comparable period in 2025.

The recent trend, however, was upward. Some 7,427 cases were reported from August 23 to September 5, 17 percent higher than during the preceding two-week period.

Children aged 5 to 14 accounted for about a quarter of recorded cases.

Influenza-like illness does not automatically mean influenza. ILI describes a group of symptoms that can be caused by different respiratory pathogens. COVID-19 and influenza can produce similar symptoms—including fever, cough, headache, body aches and fatigue—making it difficult to determine the infection from symptoms alone.

‘Don’t dismiss it’

That uncertainty was precisely the mother’s warning.

“Please don’t dismiss it as ‘just the flu,’” she wrote.

She urged sick people to stay home when possible, wear masks when going out, wash their hands, cover coughs and avoid close contact with vulnerable family members.

Health authorities similarly advise people with respiratory symptoms to observe proper cough etiquette, consider masking and stay home when sick to reduce transmission.

Difficulty breathing is especially important not to ignore and warrants prompt medical attention.

For this family, what initially appeared to be one prolonged bout of sickness turned out to involve two different infections.

And as respiratory viruses continue circulating, their experience carries a timely warning: recovering from one infection does not mean another virus cannot hit next.

READ: