Coronavirus – Affected by cancer and covid-19

“The overall condition was relatively good until I got the covid-19 in March 2020,” writes Per Egil Hegge (80) on Facebook.

The award-winning press commander has 43 years behind him in Aftenposten, where he has been editor, US correspondent. The US, UK and Russia and from 2004 to 2018 had its regular column of languages.

For his many Facebook friends, Hegge writes that he was in good health until he was diagnosed in December 2017 with myeloma, bone marrow cancer.

Since then he has been treated with chemotherapy and has endured well. This is how covid-19 was detected a couple of months ago.

“It behaved like a slightly stubborn flu, but not particularly harsh, with low fever, snoring, stomach pain and some pain probably due to cancer.” I sleep and as usual, I have no difficulty breathing and I have not been hospitalized, ”writes the 80-year-old man.

– Better

– Horses that relax are rarely prepared, Hegge tells Dagbladet, adding:

– I am much better now than just after receiving the crown diagnosis.

The language enthusiast says he still has symptoms that are compatible with covid-19, but has not been tested again.

He knows how he became infected with SARS-CoV-2.

– It seems that I have been infected in a meeting where there were people present who had come to ski in Austria. It has been discovered through infection detection, says Hegge.

At 80 years of age, they would like to have a response to the additional risk an elderly cancer patient runs by contracting coronavirus disease.

“What do you know about the danger of the combination of cancer and covid-19? At my age, I realize that I am not a perpetual entrepreneur and that I can bear disappointing news,” he writes on Facebook.

– This does not keep me awake at night, but I have called my doctors. They were honest and said they don’t know, says Hegge.

Higher risk

So far, not too extensive research shows that cancer patients appear to be at increased risk for severe covid-19 progression.

Patients with certain cancers are nearly three times more likely to die from covid-19, writes the Washington Post.

America’s leading newspaper cites a study published in late April in Cancer Discovery, a magazine published by the American Association for Cancer Research.

Compared with non-cancer covid-19 patients, coronary patients with blood or lung cancer, as well as cancer patients that have spread throughout the body, have an increased risk of death or other serious complications.

The study, conducted by researchers from China, the United States and Singapore, involved 14 hospitals in China’s Hubei province and included 105 patients with coronary cancer and 536 cancer patients without covid-19.

The researchers found that cancer patients affected by covid-19 had nearly three times the estimated virus death rate for the general population.

Per Egil Hegge hopes that the fairly good form will continue.

– I sleep a little more than before and I am a little later than 20 years ago. It may be age. I really think life is pretty good.