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Managing people with kidney disease among COVID-19 positive cases is becoming an additional challenge for doctors fighting the pandemic.
On April 23, a 70-year-old man died of COVID-19 at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here after testing positive. Hospital authorities said he had diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease and was on dialysis.
Recently, an elderly woman admitted to the same hospital for kidney problems tested positive for coronavirus after she was suspected of contracting the virus from a treating doctor.
The doctor is suspected of contracting the infection from a patient he was treating.
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“The effect on the kidney is secondary to the hypoxia or cytokines released by COVID-19. In general, the types of COVID-19 viruses are perceived to come from the lungs of the respiratory systems, but mounting evidence shows that the The virus also attacks the kidneys either directly or mediated by an excessive immune response seen in patients with severe COVID-19 and not just in the lungs, “said Dr. Suresh Rao, an intensivist at the city-based MGM Health Care.
Citing reports of SARS and MERS-CoV infections, he says that acute kidney injury (ARI) had developed in 5 to 15 percent of cases, but about 60 to 90 percent of those cases reported mortality.
“Preliminary reports of COVID-19 patients suggested a lower incidence (3 to 9 percent) of ARI, but subsequent reports indicated a higher frequency of abnormalities. A study of 59 patients with COVID-19 revealed that approximately two-thirds of the patients developed a massive leak of protein in the urine during their hospital stay, “he said.
A senior state health official said that “patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease on dialysis are also a vulnerable group due to their existing comorbidities, unavoidable repeated exposure to the hospital environment and immunosuppressed status.”
“Due to their health conditions, they also develop serious illnesses compared to the general population,” said the official.
Before reporting coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu, the state health department identified vulnerable groups, including those requiring dialysis, and ensured that their treatment was not affected.
