Malaria and dengue are unpleasant enough individually. However, it’s their joint force that is fearful. Experts say a higher number of malaria and dengue co-infection cases have been noticed in the city in the past couple of months. There are several co-infection cases, wherein two diseases occur in the person at the same time. Apart from malaria and dengue, co-infection cases of hepatitis E and typhoid and also two variants of malaria have been noticed.
Co-infection cases are generally tough to diagnose because of the incidence of more than one disease. Dr Suneetha Reddy, specialist in infectious diseases at Apollo Hospital, said that while several factors need to be considered, each disease betrays classic symptoms. When both are present in the patient, diagnosis does become difficult, but it can be done “with proper judgement”. Having come across a few malaria and dengue co-infection cases recently, she said, “The spectrum of the disease has to be observed, as to how the disease is progressing each day. Malaria causes early organ damage and it also affects the kidney and liver, while dengue is different in its approach.”