Woman Who Was Diagnosed With Dengue & Covid-19 Didn’t Actually Have Dengue

A few weeks ago, Goody Feed wrote about a 57-year-old woman who contracted both the Dengue virus and the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Unfortunately, that article is now FAKE NEWS.

It’s not that we enjoy lying to our readers or anything, MOH reported that the woman was admitted as a dengue patient in a general ward on 15 February.

Subsequent test results confirmed Covid-19 infection on 18 February, and everyone was shocked at the fact that a patient had both dengue and Covid-19, and whether she’s also the sole winner of the Hong Bao Draw 2020.

Except she didn’t.

Woman Who Was Diagnosed With Dengue & Covid-19 Didn’t Actually Have Dengue

The woman was one of two patients who tested positive for dengue but were later found to not have the mosquito-borne disease, the other being a 57-year-old man.

The man

The 57-year-old man had visited a hospital on 9 Feb with a cough, fever, and a low blood platelet count. He tested negative for dengue and was discharged.

However, his symptoms worsened and he visited another healthcare clinic. When was he tested for the dengue virus a second time, however, the man tested positive.

He was referred to a hospital for dengue and a worsening cough and had difficulties breathing.

The man was subsequently found to have Covid-19, but repeated tests for dengue came back negative.

The woman

Just like the man, the woman had initially tested positive for dengue when she went to a hospital on 13 Feb with a mild cough, fever, diarrhoea, and muscle pain. She was discharged to be treated as an outpatient.

But she was later admitted into a hospital as a dengue patient after her symptoms worsened.

She started to have breathing difficulties three days after her admission and later tested positive for the coronavirus.

Subsequently, doctors repeated a dengue test on her which turned out negative, and an earlier blood sample of hers was also negative.

But how could this be?

False positives

According to The Straits Times, both the man and the woman had false-positive results for their dengue tests.

A false-positive is an error in data reporting in which a test result improperly indicates the presence of a condition or disease when it is actually not present.

Doctors said the two cases highlighted the importance of recognising false-positive dengue results in patients with Covid-19.

Like Covid-19 patients, those with dengue typically have a fever, but they do not exhibit respiratory symptoms like a runny nose, cough or sore throat.

Doctors also emphasised the need for more accurate tests, because “failing to consider Covid-19 because of a positive dengue rapid test result has serious implications not only for the patient but also for public health”.

So, don’t worry, there isn’t a super mosquito out there who can carry both the dengue and the Covid-19 virus.

Reader: Literally no one thought that

Ok fine, it was just me.