Hospitalized Covid-19 patients are five times more likely to die than flu patients

The study uses data from the US Veterans Health Administration Hospital for 3,948 patients admitted to hospital alone after receiving Covid-19 from March 1 to May 31 this year and 5,453 patients who were hospitalized between October 1, 2018 and January 1, 2020. were hospitalized after the flu in February. Patients with Covid-19 in the study were 70 years old on average and patients with influenza were 69 years old on average.

Of these Covid-19 patients, 21.0% died in hospital and 3.8% died from the flu. Patients with Covid-19 spent nearly three times as long in hospital as patients with influenza.

In a study comparing hospitalized African-Americans, Hispanics, and other racial minorities hospitalized with Covid-19 with white patients, the first group was at a higher risk of nine complications than the second group. Respiratory, neurological and kidney diseases and sepsis were mentioned as such complications.

Patients with Covid-19 have been found to have an almost 19 times greater risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) than patients with influenza, a two-fold increased risk of pneumonia, an increased risk of 1.7 times of dyspnoea and a 3.5 times increased risk of pneumothorax. and more than double the risk of myocarditis, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, skull bleeding, acute hepatitis or liver failure, bacteremia, and pressure sores.

However, patients with Covid-19 had a lower risk of exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than patients with influenza.

Patients diagnosed with influenza after February 1 this year were not included in the study to avoid enrolling patients who could also be infected with Covid-19.