and a veteran of disease-outbreak monitoring and prevention issued the warning at a webinar.
“The symptoms overlap with Covid-19, so we need to always check whether patients live in or have travelled to a malaria area within the last month — and do malaria tests. These results are usually very quick compared to Covid-19 tests, which can take days, meaning the opportunity to treat uncomplicated malaria can be lost,” she said.
“Not all Ards is Covid-19 — so get that travel and residential history — but ideally, we need to be treating malaria long before it becomes difficult,” she warned clinicians. “Not everything with fever or breathing fast is Covid. Also, fever, headaches and fatigue overlap in both diseases. If there is a loss in taste and smell, however, it’s more likely to be Covid,” Blumberg said.