Covid-19 Three times more lethal than influenza: Tribune India

PTI

London, April 22

Adults hospitalized for COVID-19 have a significantly higher risk of complications and death than adults with influenza, despite being young and having fewer chronic illnesses, according to a study conducted in Spain.

Presented at this year’s European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal, April 23-26, the findings link COVID-19 to both extended hospital stay and intensive care. It also suggests that it will cost most of the time. Twice to treat.

Researchers at Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, ​​Spain, examined the medical records of 187 patients (mean age 76 years, 55% male) who were hospitalized for seasonal influenza between 2017 and 2019.

They also analyzed the records of 187 COVID-19 patients (mean age 67 years, 49% male) hospitalized during the first wave of the pandemic from March to May 2020.

In both groups, patients were enrolled consecutively until the required sample size was reached.

This study compared the use of medical resources such as clinical characteristics, length of stay, admission to the intensive care unit, hospital costs, and death.

Influenza patients tended to have more chronic illnesses and activities of daily living problems than COVID-19 patients, but were less likely to be overweight or obese.

Analysis revealed that COVID-19 has a high severity of infection and a high risk of hospitalization in the ICU.

“Our findings suggest that COVID-19 is far more deadly than influenza. Despite the fact that influenza patients are older and have more comorbidities, COVID-19 patients are consistent. The health condition deteriorated and the treatment cost a lot, “said Inmaculada Lopez Montesisinos, lead author of the study, Hospital del Mar.

“Even the lucky people who survived COVID-19 and were able to leave the hospital will be hurt forever by the consequences. It is important that people are fully vaccinated and boosted against both viruses. “Montesinos said.

Patients with COVID-19 are more likely to experience certain complications such as acute kidney injury, blood clots, and moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, and the lungs do not provide sufficient oxygen to vital organs of the body.

On the other hand, influenza patients were more likely to suffer from bacterial pneumonia, according to researchers.

Overall, 29 of 187 (15%) COVID-19 patients and 10 of 187 (5%) influenza patients died for some reason within 30 days of admission, with even higher mortality after 90 days. it was high. Said.

The authors of the study stated that there was no difference in mortality trends among the three seasonal influenza periods studied.

After considering potential confusion such as age, comorbidities, gender, severity of the disease, presence of pneumonia, corticosteroid treatment, researchers found that COVID-19 patients were within 30 and 90 days of admission. From influenza patients who have found that they are more than three times more likely to die.

Further analysis showed that patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized much longer than those with influenza, the researchers said.

They say that the average cost of critical care for COVID-19 patients was almost double that of influenza patients, and the cost of treatment and testing at pharmacies was also significantly higher in the COVID-19 group.

The authors acknowledge that there are some limitations of the study, including that performed at one tertiary care hospital in Spain, so the findings may not be generalized to other populations.

They also did not perform genotyping studies and it is likely that COVID-19 patients were affected by wild-type B.1, but the results are now circulating with multiple SARS-CoV-2 mutants. Globally stated that it may not reflect the scenario of.