Last week, a man in his early 30s reached the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital with Covid-19-like symptoms. He told the doctors that he suspected he might have been infected with the coronavirus even though his test results had come negative.

“Since his Covid test was negative, we recommend the patient get an influenza test. It was confirmed he had contracted influenza,” Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of the Clinical Research Unit at the hospital, told the Post.

Pun says there has been a rise in the number of patients visiting the hospital who are infected with influenza A and B virus.

“It’s not just Covid-19 cases we have to worry about at the moment. Influenza patients are also increasing in recent times,” Pun said.

According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Influenza Surveillance, over 240 influenza cases have been reported in Nepal in the first and second weeks of August. Cases of influenza B infections have shot up significantly since the second week of August.

Public health experts say the rise in the number of influenza cases is concerning at a time when the country is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. They have warned that chances of misdiagnosis and negligence could be high during this time, which could lead to delayed treatment and even deaths.

“Many people are not taking the influenza virus seriously,” said Pun. “When a person tests negative for Covid-19, he/she returns home believing that they are safe. But we should not forget that influenza virus is also highly contagious. It could cause pneumonia and if left untreated, even deaths.”

Several deaths have been recorded in Nepal from sublineage of influenza A virus—H1N1 and others.

Doctors say some of the symptoms of the flu and coronavirus overlap with each other, which can lead to misdiagnosis and cause confusions. In both infections (Covid-19 and influenza), patients suffer from fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, vomiting and diarrhoea, and change in or loss of taste or smell.

“Both viruses cause respiratory disease and if not treated in time, both cause severity and deaths,” Dr Prabhat Adhikari, infectious disease and critical care expert, told the Post. “But unlike Covid-19, treatment of influenza is available and early intervention can prevent the severity of illness.”

Compared to influenza virus, the severity and death rate of Covid-19 is high. So far, 10,533 deaths have been recorded since the start of the pandemic last year. In the last 24 hours, 24 people died from Covid-19-related complications. Active cases stand at 38,351.

The Ministry of Health and Population said that 829,433 people have been infected with the coronavirus (748,981 in polymerase chain reaction tests and 80,462 in antigen tests) since the start of the pandemic.

Doctors say people can also be infected with Covid-19 and influenza at the same time.

“I have seen at least two patients infected with both Covid-19 and influenza at the same time, “ said Dr Pun.

The WHO says that mortality for Covid-19 appears higher than that of influenza, especially seasonal influenza.

“For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually below 0.1 percent,” reads a report of the WHO. “However, mortality is to a large extent determined by access to and quality of health care.”

As the Health Ministry has asked all health workers serving throughout the country to focus on Covid-19, risk of other ailments getting ignored is high.

“If a patient having Covid-19-like symptoms tests negative, he or she should also get an influenza test,” said Adhikari, an infectious disease expert. “Timely detection of the infection, whether it is from the coronavirus or the influenza virus, helps health workers start treatment in time.”