Season of two viruses? Scientists worry dengue outbreak may aggravate Covid-19 crisis

As dengue season sets in across large parts of India with the onset of the monsoon, scientists warn that COVID-19 and the mosquito-borne disease have overlapping symptoms and worry the country’s healthcare infrastructure won’t be able to cope with this double whammy.

The impact of a ‘dengue-COVID-19’ season would entail two different diagnostic tests and extract a huge toll on patients too, each disease making the other more complicated to deal with and perhaps more fatal. While the number of COVID-19 cases races towards the 8,00,000 mark with 7,93,802 cases on Friday and 21,604 fatalities, the incidence of dengue is also high. Based on 2016-2019 data, virologist Shahid Jameel estimated that India gets about 100,000 to 200,000 confirmed cases of dengue each year.

According to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), 1,36,422 dengue cases were diagnosed in 2019 and an estimated 132 people died.