{"id":338150,"date":"2025-12-10T20:41:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/som2nypost.com\/uncategorized\/is-there-a-link-%c2%b7-break-dengue\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T20:41:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:41:21","slug":"is-there-a-link-%c2%b7-break-dengue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/som2nypost.com\/?p=338150","title":{"rendered":"Is there a link? \u00b7 Break Dengue"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In March this year, an <\/em>article published in the Lancet<\/em><\/a> raised concerns that patients testing positive for dengue were later confirmed to have COVID-19<\/em>. It describes two patients in Singapore with false-positive results from rapid serological testing for dengue who were later confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Over the intervening months, other research has shown an intriguing, and also potentially crucial, link between the two seemingly unrelated viruses. <\/em><\/p>\n

The first of two pieces of research we look at here examines what happened when researchers tested thirteen serum samples containing dengue antibodies for COVID-19. The second examines how dengue influenced the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most interesting is the conclusions drawn by the researchers on each of the studies.<\/p>\n

Dengue and COVID-19 false-positives confirmed<\/em><\/p>\n

Noting that early symptoms of COVID-19 can be mistaken for dengue, researchers in India were concerned when both dengue and COVID-19 infections had started to rise simultaneously. Dengue numbers were rising as they do every year when the monsoon season hits. COVID-19 numbers were rising as the pandemic spread across the globe.<\/p>\n

Worried that dengue antibodies might cross-react with COVID-19 rapid tests, the researchers tested thirteen serum samples for SARS-CoV-2<\/a>. Of those thirteen samples, five showed a false-positive when tested for SARS-CoV-2 in two different rapid test kits. More importantly, the serum samples were dated 2017, long before the emergence of the COVID-19 epidemic.<\/p>\n

So, in dengue-endemic countries, rapid testing kits may misdiagnose dengue patients as having COVID-19. And may misdiagnose COVID-19 patients as having dengue. The researchers concluded:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that both these viruses have some antigenic similarity that is resulting in the observed cross-reactivity.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Potential cross-reactivity between dengue and SARS-CoV-2<\/em><\/p>\n

The story gets even more intriguing when you examine a recent study exploring how dengue influenced the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> in Brazil this year. Our second study used mathematical modelling to understand what was behind the uneven geographic spread of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Brazil.<\/p>\n

As COVID-19 spread across the country, researchers chanced about a link between the geographic distribution of dengue and COVID-19. Dengue had infected more than 3.5 million Brazilians between January 2019 and July 2020.<\/p>\n

The researchers compared each of the country\u2019s states. They looked at what fraction of the population had contracted dengue fever in 2019-2020 and the number of COVID-19 infections. They found that states in which a large proportion of the population had contracted dengue fever in 2019-2020 reported lower COVID-19 cases, infection rates and deaths.<\/p>\n

When they looked for a similar link between SARS-CoV-2 and the chikungunya virus, they drew a blank. But when they looked for that link between COVID-19 and dengue in a sample of countries around Asia and Latin America, as well as in islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, it was clearly evident.<\/p>\n

The researchers raised the possibility of \u2018immunological cross-reactivity<\/a>\u2019 between dengue and SARS-CoV-2, concluding:<\/p>\n

\u201cDengue infection or immunization with an efficacious and safe dengue vaccine could produce some level of immunological protection for SARS-CoV-2 before a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 becomes available.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We are still at the start of our journey to advancing our knowledge on the link between dengue and COVID-19. There\u2019s a distinct possibility that uncovering potential new ways to fight either of these seemingly unrelated viruses might unlock the answer to combatting them both. But we have a lot more to learn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n