From Philippines to Malaysia, Asia could face ‘double burden’ of dengue and Covid-19

A small study in Brazil suggests coronavirus patients who previously had dengue are twice as likely to display Covid-19 symptoms

Analysts say there’s no other evidence of a link, but recommend countries where dengue is endemic conduct their own studies to prevent ‘future crises’

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A health worker sprays insecticide to control the number of dengue-carrying mosquitoes in Sri Lanka. Photo: Xinhua

Sen Nguyenin Ho Chi Minh City

Published: 2:56pm, 8 Jun 2021Updated: 12:02pm, 10 Jun 2021

Former dengue patients who contract Covid-19 could experience more severe symptoms, a small study has suggested, raising concerns that countries in Asia, where mosquito-borne diseases are endemic, could face a “double burden” at a time health systems are stretched thin by the coronavirus pandemic.

The study, published in May by the University of Oxford’s peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, analysed blood samples from 1,285 people in the small town of Mâncio Lima in Brazil’s Amazon region between 2018 and 2020. It found that coronavirus patients who previously had dengue were twice as likely to display Covid-19 symptoms.

Lead researcher, Dr Marcelo Urbano Ferreira, said the research team found no association between a prior dengue infection and the risk of getting infected with the novel coronavirus during the first Covid-19 wave in Brazil.

He added that his study did not have the “statistical power to investigate” the relationship between prior dengue infection and Covid-19 severity due to the fact that severe coronavirus infections that required hospitalisation accounted for a small proportion of all clinical cases.

While those who had dengue before were at increased risk of presenting Covid-19 related symptoms, they also showed more severe symptoms on average, Ferreira said. But the latter hypothesis was not directly tested in the study.

Still, the result suggested that “sequential dengue and Covid-19 epidemics may impose an extra burden of disease to affected communities in the tropical and subtropical world”, the study said.

From Philippines to Malaysia, Asia could face ‘double burden’ of dengue and Covid-19

A small study in Brazil suggests coronavirus patients who previously had dengue are twice as likely to display Covid-19 symptoms Analysts say there’s no other evidence of a link, but recommend countries where dengue is endemic conduct their own studies to prevent ‘future crises’

A small study in Brazil suggests coronavirus patients who previously had dengue are twice as likely to display Covid-19 symptoms

Analysts say there’s no other evidence of a link, but recommend countries where dengue is endemic conduct their own studies to prevent ‘future crises’