# Covid-19 misdiagnosed as Dengue Fever?

**URL:** <https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/covid-19-misdiagnosed-as-dengue-fever/716>\
**Category:** Natural sciences\
**Created:** [June 28, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/covid-19-misdiagnosed-as-dengue-fever/716 "2020-06-28T07:26:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rebecca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/onscienceandacademia.org/rebecca/32/520_2.png) [@rebecca](https://onscienceandacademia.org/u/rebecca)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/covid-19-misdiagnosed-as-dengue-fever/716/1 "2020-06-28T07:26:33Z")

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> [@Bali blues](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/bali-blues/712/1):
>
> is dengue another indication of cvd19 infection?

This paper in The Lancet suggests that covid-19 can be mistaken for dengue:

[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30158-4/fulltext](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30158-4/fulltext)

And here’s another case described from Thailand where the covid-19 patient had the typical dengue rash:

> **[COVID-19 can present with a rash and be mistaken for dengue](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156802/)**

More researchers agreeing that covid-19 can present with skin rashes (from Spain):

[https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(20)30556-9/pdf](https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(20)30556-9/pdf)

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**Author:** ![rebecca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/onscienceandacademia.org/rebecca/32/520_2.png) [@rebecca](https://onscienceandacademia.org/u/rebecca)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:29am UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/covid-19-misdiagnosed-as-dengue-fever/716/2 "2020-06-28T07:29:12Z")

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Apparently, Brasil is now also facing an outbreak of dengue fever. Or is it covid-19 inaccurately diagnosed as dengue? @Gavin and @alexandrejaguar, you’re both in Brasil. Have you heard anything about this?

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7144614/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7144614/)

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**Author:** ![alexandrejaguar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/onscienceandacademia.org/alexandrejaguar/32/43_2.png) [@alexandrejaguar](https://onscienceandacademia.org/u/alexandrejaguar)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/covid-19-misdiagnosed-as-dengue-fever/716/3 "2020-06-28T16:47:10Z")

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Hi Rebecca,

Maybe this could happen. But, unfortunately, we have outbreaks of dengue fever every year in Brazil; dengue and its symptoms are very known to Brazil already. Although the symptoms seem to be almost the same to covid-19 — when using the latest CDC list [[1]](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-symptoms-cases-rise-cdc-list-updates/) to compare — there is one that makes a large difference: the shortness of breath. This is only present in covid-19.

I agree that this year will be specially difficult due to the doubling with covid-19. In several places, the Brazilian government puts the responsibility of dengue fever into the population — _you_ have to take care, clean your places, get rid of the mosquito… — and people in Brazil seem not to care anymore.

On the covid-19 side, people are not being tested enough — or caring as they should, in several places. The article says that Brazil is making every effort to keep the number of cases from rising; I kindly disagree. The government and the people could do _a lot_ more; however, people are dying in their rush of “living”, and the government doesn’t seem to care — even demanding and encouraging people to get “back to normal”.

I found another comment on this, made in May, from one of the authors [[2]](https://www.scidev.net/global/coronavirus/news/double-epidemic-could-crash-latin-america-health-systems.html).