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Ninety percent of the deceased doctors were men
April 28, 2020. 1:35 pm
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of morbidity and mortality to patients, but also to healthcare providers.
North American researchers have published a study in medRxiv, where they analyze 198 deaths of doctors from COVID-19. The average age of the doctors who died was 63.4 years (range from 28 to 90 years) and the average age was 66 years.
Ninety percent of the deceased physicians were male (175/194). General practitioners and emergency physicians (78/192), respirators (5/192), Internal medicine specialists (11/192) and anesthesiologists (6/192) made up 52% of the deceased. Two percent were epidemiologists (4/192), 2% were infectious disease specialists (4/192), 5% were dentists (9/192), 4% were otolaryngologists (8/192), and 4 % were ophthalmologists (7/192). The countries with the most reported deaths of doctors were Italy (79/198), Iran (43/198), China (16/198), the Philippines (14/198), the United States (9/192) and Indonesia (7/192 )
The authors conclude that physicians of all specialties can die from COVID, and these deaths will likely increase as the pandemic progresses. Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a common cause of death and they consider that consideration should be given to excluding older physicians from front-line work.
