Dengue recoveries have higher risk of long-term health problems than COVID-19 patients: Study

Fever ward at a hospital in Hyderabad where dengue patients are admitted. Cases of viral fever have been spreading in the city for the past few days. Photo courtesy: Nagara Gopal

Patients who recovered from dengue are more likely to develop long-term health complications than those who were cured of dengue. COVID-19According to a study of Singapore residents, mortality rates increased in the year following initial infection.

The study found that patients suffering from dengue had a 55 per cent higher risk of developing cardiovascular complications such as irregular heartbeat and blood clots compared to patients infected with the viral COVID-19 infection.

Dengue is a viral disease that spreads to people through the bite of an infected mosquito, while COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Researchers led by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University also found that dengue patients were nearly 200 per cent more likely to have cognition or memory problems and movement disorders than COVID-19 patients.

This study has been published in. Journal of Travel MedicineTests and medical insurance claim records from more than 11,700 dengue patients and more than 1.2 million COVID-19 patients were analysed. Researchers looked for newly emerging health problems of the heart, brain and immune system that appeared between one month and 300 days (less than a year) after the initial infection.

“Dengue is one of the most common vector-borne diseases globally, and the long-term health problems caused by dengue can substantially increase the healthcare burden of the infected individual and the country,” said lead author Lim Jue Tao, assistant professor of infectious disease modelling at Nanyang Technological University.

Of the participants, 0.9 percent in the dengue group and 0.5 percent in the COVID-19 group developed cardiovascular problems. About 0.3 percent in the dengue group and 0.1 percent in the COVID-19 group developed cognition and memory disorders, while 0.2 percent in the dengue group and 0.1 percent in the COVID-19 group developed movement problems, the authors said.

Previous research by the authors suggested an increased risk of similar long-term health complications in both dengue and COVID-19 patients.

“Overall, our study emphasizes the need for people to prevent dengue in their environments and can be a resource to support public health planning,” Xu Tao said.