Concomitant COVID-19 and flu doubles death risk: study
The risk of death is more than doubled in patients with concurrent SARS-Cov-2 and influenza infections than those with COVID-19 alone, a review of hospitalised cases suggests.
The findings underscore the need the need to test patients hospitalised with COVID-19 for flu, say the UK researchers.
Their review of clinical outcomes for nearly 7000 patients revealed those with SARS-CoV-2/influenza co-infection (277 patients) were 2.4 times more likely to die compared with patients who had only COVID-19.
In addition, they were four times more likely to require invasive mechanical ventilation, according to a research letter in The Lancet.