The coronavirus kills not only the elderly: Razmuvienė explained why

Daiva Razmuvienė, an epidemiologist and chief specialist in the Communicable Disease Management Division of the National Center for Public Health (NVSC), suggested not assessing coronavirus deaths by age alone. This virus can also kill younger people with certain chronic diseases. Even in Lithuania, the youngest person to die from coronavirus was not even 50 years old. The deceased boss was over 100 years old.

Among the dead – more men

According to data from October 28, a total of 144 deaths were recorded. Of these, 76 are men and 68 are women.

Up to 50 years of age have been reported. The youngest deceased was 47 years old, ”said D. Razmuvienė.

According to NVSC data, the highest number of deaths from coronavirus was recorded in the age group 80 to 89 years. A total of 55 people in this age group died. Between 70-79 The number of deaths from coronavirus was 38, 60-69 years, 25, 90-99 years. – 14, 50-59 – 9. Also, as mentioned, one person died of coronavirus at the age of more than 100 years.

From the age of 50, women are more likely to develop coronavirus in absolute terms than in terms of rate. True, as the doctor pointed out, estimating the rate per 100 thousand. population, this number is distributed differently. D. Razmuvienė noted that between the ages of 70 and 80, men get sick more often when assessing the morbidity rate.

Almost all the people who died from coronavirus in Lithuania had chronic diseases. Only one of the deceased had chronic illnesses, the NVSC has not yet responded as there is an ongoing investigation.

“Among the chronic diseases that have resulted in deaths from coronavirus, various cardiovascular pathologies are at the forefront, and it is clear how cancers, diabetes and all other internal diseases coexist, if detected,” said the epidemiologist.

Chronic disease is more important than age

D. Razmuvienė is not surprised that the number of deaths from coronavirus is growing and the deaths of younger people are increasingly being reported. For example, this week, before October 28, there were two deaths between the ages of 50 and 59 and two more between the ages of 60 and 69.

“As the number of patients is registered exponentially, there is no doubt that the number of deaths is increasing”, the interlocutor was not surprised.

According to D. Razmuvienė, in the large municipalities – Vilnius and Kaunas – where the largest population of people is found, more than 90 percent. infected people are under 65 years of age.

“Clearly, there are also chronically ill people in that age group, even among chronically ill children. Sometimes scientists say: let’s not look at age, let’s look at the chronic diseases that dominate. If it is a cardiovascular disease, diabetes, probably the first type, then these people become more vulnerable simply because their immune system can no longer fight another antigen that has fallen into the body. After all, your immune system is already tired of the existing chronic disease process, “explained the epidemiologist.

The biggest anxiety about nursing homes

Still, older people die more often, according to statistics.

“The older a person is, the more likely they are to have a positive response in laboratory tests because they are more affected by the chronic diseases they have, the more they age because the immune system is over 65 each year. It can no longer react as actively to that foreign antigen as the young human immune system. This is a normal physiological process. That is what we are looking at, that is what Europe is looking at.

Therefore, both now and in the spring, we try to remember that it is in the nursing home where the risk of spreading the virus between patients is greatest. Firstly, they are bedridden, secondly, their old age, in addition to many chronic illnesses. They do not leave the room anywhere, they are in a closed space and they have staff, visitors can carry the virus to what we see. And those people are very receptive. It is not just a problem for Europe, but also for the world, that the greatest attention should be paid here ”, said D. Razmuvienė.

Deaths from COVID-19 are not ultra-fast

Recently, there have been reports of deaths less than a week after the confirmation of the coronavirus. Does this mean that a coronavirus can complicate quickly enough for the infected person to die?

“It just came to our knowledge then. But if a person feels bad enough for a while, they may have been treated on an outpatient basis, and after a while they may have developed some additional more serious symptoms. They were then taken to the hospital. hospital, hospitalized, needed some oxygen, medical treatment. The body was likely affected by milder symptoms during the period when he was feeling unwell, and when he was taken to the hospital, an examination was performed and it was no longer possible help.This is one of the options.

Talk about sudden death, how lightning forms to other illnesses, meningococcal infections, tetanus, when a person feels unwell today, and after 12 o’clock. or the day died, it is not. Those symptoms may have been milder or non-existent, but when a more serious symptom occurred, the person went to the doctor, did some kind of test and possibly came back positive, and the process of the virus in the body could be damaged ”, the doctor tried to find an explanation.