A retrospective study published on November 13, 2020 in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society compared how patients fare with severe COVID-19 with those hospitalized with severe seasonal influenza. A key finding in the study was that the COVID-19 patients had an in-hospital death rate of 40% vs only 19% for influenza patients. The higher mortality rate was independent of patient age, co-occurring health conditions, gender, and severity of illness while in the intensive care unit.
Patients with either condition often require mechanical ventilation, but patients with COVID-19 need to remain on mechanical ventilation for longer and with worse lung functioning overall. Patients with COVID-19 are also more likely to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a life-threatening complication where the lungs become very inflamed. This finding that ARDS is more prevalent in COVID-19 patients helps to explain the mortality difference between the two diseases.
The researchers also found that COVID-19 patients have “slower improvements in blood-oxygen levels, longer durations of mechanical ventilation, and lower rates of extubation than influenza patients.” Patients with COVID-19 are also more likely to be “male, have higher body mass index, and higher rates of chronic kidney disease and diabetes.”
In terms of populations affected, the study found that close to four times as many COVID-19 patients identified as Hispanic compared to influenza patients which could be related to underlying health factors and/or to socioeconomic inequalities.
With rising cases of COVID-19 and the flu season, Dr. Natalie Cobb, a UW medicine physician in pulmonary and critical care, recommends that everyone get the flu vaccine and continue social distancing measures and masking to limit the spread of COVID-19 as we see spikes in hospitalizations and ICU admissions that could overwhelm our healthcare system.
Reference:
“Patients Fare Better with Severe Flu than with COVID-19.” Newsroom, 17 Nov. 2020, newsroom.uw.edu/news/patients-severe-flu-do-better-covid-19-cases?utm_source=UW_News_Subscribers.
- Claire Hillier, Nov. 18
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