Young people are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 in Latin America



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“Young and middle-aged adults in Latin America and the Caribbean are more likely to die or become seriously ill from coronavirus than their peers in more developed regions,” said IDB specialists Juan Pablo Chauvin and Juan Nicolas Herrera, in a study in conjunction with academic Annabelle Fowler.

The experts analyzed official statistics and found that in developing countries the youngest age groups represent a “significantly higher proportion of COVID-19 deaths” relative to high-income countries.

An example is the case of Colombia, where for every 100 deaths from coronavirus, about 30 correspond to people under 60 years of age, while in the United States only 12 of every 100 deaths correspond to that same age group.

“Non-elderly COVID-19 patients are more likely to die from the disease in Mexico and Colombia than in the United States and Canada”, indicated the researchers, who found no significant differences when studying data from the population over 80 years of age.

A very eloquent fact is that an average positive patient in the age group of 40 to 49 years in Colombia or Mexico has statistically the same average probability of dying from the virus as a sick patient in the age group of 60 to 69 years in Canada or the United States. United.

Coronavirus deaths with pre-existing diseases and overcrowding

The authors compared data from five high-income countries and the five developing countries with the highest number of confirmed deaths: France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States and on the other side Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and South Africa.

These lower chances of recovering from the virus are also explained by the higher prevalence of pre-existing illnesses related to complications and more limited access to hospitals in some countries.

Among the diseases cited are chronic kidney complications, neurological disorders, HIV / AIDS and tuberculosis.

With regard to hospital care, the authors noted that in Colombia and Mexico, patients in this group have relatively lower access to the ICU, in case of being hospitalized.

The experts also cited that other studies have linked factors such as disease to a faster spread of the disease. residential overcrowding, access to running water and the informality of the labor market.

“As countries determine how best to distribute their vaccines, our work suggests that, in the developing world, age may not be a sufficient indicator of the risk of mortality from COVID-19 a person faces,” concluded Chauvin.



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