Covid 19: Patients have many more complications than flu patients, finds US study

Patients who had been admitted to hospital with covid-19 had many more complications, and more serious ones, than patients with influenza, says a study from the US Veterans Health Administration.1 Patients with covid-19 were more likely than flu patients to need treatment in intensive care, had longer hospital stays, and were more likely to die. “Certain racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by covid-19 and … this discrepancy is not solely accounted for by age and underlying medical conditions,” the authors reported. [...]data have been lacking to compare in-hospital complications of patients with covid-19 with patients with influenza, the authors said. Hospital stays of covid-19 patients were almost three times as long as those of flu patients, and they were twice as likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit.