Professor Čaplinskas explained why youth deaths from COVID-19 are currently increasing

The youngest victim of the coronavirus in Lithuania was reported on Thursday. He was only 27 years old.

A person has been suffering from coronavirus for more than a month. Infected in the family. On November 8, he was admitted to the Marijampolė Hospital. He was later transferred to the Kaunas clinics for complications. Other members of the family also became more seriously ill and were hospitalized.

According to infectious disease specialist Professor Saulius Čaplinskas, such deaths of younger people can be explained by the increasing number of infected young people, and all people of this age are believed to suffer from only mild forms of the disease.

“There is no evidence that the virus has mutated in that direction to cause more harm to younger people. There have just been more young people infected, perhaps more confident of their health and less protected, perhaps affected by the news that young people are in a mild form and they have not seen the seriously ill themselves. These factors are likely to work. Also, there is pandemic fatigue, information is no longer accepted, it is already boring when a politician or several doctors, whom one person does not they know personally, they talk, ”said S. Čaplinskas about why more and more young people are dying.

So it goes without saying that people who are less afraid of being infected protect themselves from increasing contact, and the virus continues to spread.

“It is not surprising that young people are ill. If they are seriously ill and die, some may not even know that they have chronic health problems,” said the professor.

The death of a 37-year-old professional athlete in Lithuania due to a coronavirus was also recently announced.

“We all know that professional sports are not so healthy and good for health. Sometimes dietary supplements, various substances are used to increase muscle mass. Perhaps in some cases this can also contribute to a more severe course of the disease, it is difficult to say. Young people should not be fooled and think that they will not get sick. And for young people, this disease can be serious and insidious, and it is not clear what the residual phenomena can be, “said the interlocutor.

According to S. Čaplinskas, it is now increasingly said that some people with COVID-19 can develop residual phenomena after a while. This can happen about a year later.

As LvMU professor and infectologist Alvydas Laiškonis previously told Delfi, we can now see more middle-aged people dying due to the fact that quarantine is no longer strictly observed. In addition, serious comorbidities contribute.

“Currently, we have people of all ages who have various comorbidities. Statistics never show exactly what the deceased’s comorbidities are. He may have had an oncological disease, possibly being treated with immunosuppressive drugs. And a young person can already receive a kidney transplant, a bone marrow transplant. In such a patient, the coronavirus may be the last disease that contributes to death, “said the interlocutor.

The body of a person with a chronic illness or other illnesses is already fighting off the existing illness, and the contributing coronavirus is the last straw that has wiped out the immune system.

“Immunity is in a constant state of tension, in some cases it is still suppressed, and the contributing coronavirus infection provides a very difficult and unfortunate solution,” said prof. A. Laiškonis.

Could it be that a 40-year-old man who does not suffer from chronic diseases and other serious illnesses dies from coronavirus?

“It just came to our notice then. There are people whose immune system reacts very violently. We call it cytokine storm. When a microorganism enters the body, the human immune system not only fights it, but also causes so many changes in the body. that the body itself begins to burn. By neutralizing the pathogen, it dies itself, “explained the doctor.

December is the most thankless time

This time he does not thank Lithuania for the fact that it is December when the highest spike in the spread of colds and other coronaviruses occurs. With the start of the first wave of coronavirus, we were lucky, because we are “asking” for the largest season of this type of disease. Furthermore, the Lithuanians did not have direct flights from China.

“The season for the spread of coronavirus has begun, with the most intense in December increasing in January and February and only then does it begin to decrease.” This seasonality is well known for other cold viruses, but COVID-19 is no exception. ” said the interviewee.

Most have probably already forgotten the excitement Palanga had in summer, when thousands of vacationers gathered on the beach for several weekends due to the extremely hot weather. At that time, most feared that such behavior on the part of compatriots would provoke a new wave of the virus. But that did not happen. Why?

“The first thing we talked about in the summer, when there were a lot of people on the beach, I immediately said that it was exaggerated bullying. It is an open space, always next to the sea, the wind, the ultraviolet rays, the sun, all this spreads the virus. Of course, the chances of infection remain if a person transmitting the virus stays for a long time. Ultraviolet light and vitamin D are not enough to protect against infection. We also see it from the south. However, the intensity of the spread is certainly not as high as in an enclosed space ”, recalled S. Čaplinskas.

And now a similar situation has occurred due to the Christmas tree lighting festivals in major Lithuanian cities, when crowds of people gathered near them. How is this different from the summer? S. Čaplinskas says it is basically the same, only there are some important aspects.

“There were no ultraviolet rays during the illumination. Also, dehydrated mucosa, as occurs in winter, can be a favorable factor for the spread of the virus. However, now most Lithuanians have already learned to wear masks. If a person he wore a mask correctly, he only admired the Christmas tree, he did not stay among people for a long time and then did not visit guests, did not communicate with strangers without masks, in fact the interlocutor explained.

As the professor said, in an epidemiological sense, it was not a very risky phenomenon if people wore masks and were not around other people for too long.

The less we investigate, the less we see the real situation

Although the quarantine was announced more than a month ago, we did not see the desired result. However, according to the interlocutor, it should be understood that the quarantine itself does not stop the number of diseases, but the reduction of contacts. If distances are observed, the mask is worn correctly, the gathering time is short, the probability of infection can be significantly reduced.

“Now we are faced with the phenomenon of an iceberg, when before we only saw a small part sticking out of the water, and when we got closer, we saw that there is still a large part of the iceberg under the water,” gave S. Čaplinskas as an example.

Therefore, now everything will depend on how the population is studied, according to the example of the professor, the more we study, the larger the part of the iceberg that we will see. S. Čaplinskas also compares this with the results of the weekend’s investigation.

According to the interviewee, the number of new coronavirus cases detected in Lithuania almost every weekend is significantly decreasing. However, much less research is being done. Once the percentage of positive cases has been calculated from the tests carried out, it is the same as on working days. It means that many cases remain unexplored. According to S. Čaplinskas, there are about 10-20 percent of positive cases. of all the studies carried out.

“It just came to our knowledge then. Another issue is the quality of laboratory work. It would be interesting to see if the percentage of positive tests is the same in all laboratories, – said S. Čaplinskas.

– Until we have a more detailed analysis, it is difficult to say where the virus is spreading. But the fact that the virus is spreading uncontrollably is clear. The goal should be to diagnose the infected person as soon as possible so that they do not transmit the virus to other people. And here is a great chasm. It is bad if a person has to wait a long time for a response, furthermore, not everyone can connect to the eHealth system and see what the response of their investigation is. This is how the virus continues to spread. “