Study analysed deaths in the US in the fall-winter of 2023-23 to examine whether the mortality inflicted by COVID19 is comparable with that of seasonal influenza
A study in Missouri has found that in fall-winter 2023-2024, the risk of death in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 was greater than the risk of death in patients hospitalized for seasonal influenza. It was published in JAMA.
The researchers reported: “The study found that in fall-winter 2023-2024, the risk of death in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 was greater than the risk of death in patients hospitalized for seasonal influenza. Compared with a study using the same database and methods,3 the death rate at 30 days was 5.97% in 2022-2023 vs 5.70% in 2023-2024 for COVID-19 and 3.75% in 2022-2023 vs 4.24% in 2023-2024 for influenza.” While it does not have any implications on whether COVID19 increases the chances of death in all patient but simply means that the prognosis for those that are hospitalised with the infection is worse than for those who contract seasonal influenza.
Based on US Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health records from all 50 states, the researchers identified people who were admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of COVID-19 or seasonal influenza between October 1, 2023, and March 27, 2024, and within 2 days before and 10 days after a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2 or influenza. The cohort included 8625 participants hospitalized for COVID-19 and 2647 participants hospitalized for seasonal influenza.
The researchers added: “The results also showed that at the level of statistical power available in this study, there was no significant difference in risk of death among those hospitalized for COVID-19 before and during the JN.1-predominant era—suggesting that JN.1 may not have a materially different severity profile than the variants that immediately preceded it.”
