In Kolkata, when the number of dengue cases is surging at a scary pace, doctors across the city have also started coming across cases of dual dengue and malaria infection. Several experts have stated that the challenge posed by such dual infections can be quite a challenge to manage. Though the number is not yet alarming, quite a few such cases have been detected over the past two weeks. A health official added that only a handful of patients have so far been detected with dual infections, but no deaths have been reported so far.

Professor of medicine, Dr. Parthasarathi Karmakar, explained that while dengue patients have a high risk of platelet drop, malaria can also lead to thrombocytopenia. He stated that a person can get infected by both malaria and dengue if he or she is bitten by both Aedes aegypti and anopheles mosquitos. Further, he added that there are a few such cases, but it is not a very common scenario.

Dr. Karmakar added that a patient with a double infection is at extra risk and will require intense monitoring. According to several entomologists, anopheles mosquitoes that carry the malaria vector mostly breed in dirty stagnant water like in an open drain, while Aedes aegpti, which causes dengue, prefers breeding in clean stagnant water. Hence, both can breed in the same locality. Dr. Sauren Panja, Medicine and Critical Care head at RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, stated that even if a dual malaria-dengue infection does not turn severe, it can prolong the symptoms, needing longer hospital care.