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EPISENTER: Medical personnel transport a dead patient from Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on April 2. Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP
Mortality is falling, according to a new corona study. The explanation is not just that the patients admitted to the hospital are younger.
Researchers in New York have corrected for differences for age, gender, ethnicity, underlying health issues, and severity of corona symptoms at the time of admission.
Regardless of such factors, mortality among patients with confirmed corona infection fell from 25.6 percent in March to 7.6 percent in August.
– Covid-19 is still a serious disease for risk groups, but the death rate improves over time, is the conclusion of the NYU Langone Health report.
See VG’s report from March 24, when New York was the epicenter of the pandemic:
Deputy Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad tells VG that mortality from covid-19 is affected by many different factors.
“Especially on the east coast of the US, it was critical in many hospitals in April, which means that the chances of survival are significantly reduced in intensive care units,” Nakstad says.
The New York study includes 5121 admissions to three hospitals. The corona virus killed more than 10,000 people in the city of millions in April alone.
Mortality was significantly reduced
The different demographic data and the degree of illness of the patients when they arrived at the hospital do not alone explain why mortality decreased from month to month.
Although we adjusted for risk for such factors, mortality was significantly reduced over the period, the researchers write in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
SICK: A patient will be transferred to the ward of Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on April 7. Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP
They believe that a better evolution of the disease is related to
- More experience with covid-19 disease
- Decrease in the number of admissions
- Increased use of medications for pneumonia
- Measures such as laying patients face down instead of on their back
- Admission earlier in the course of illness
– And possibly that they were exposed to fewer viruses as a result of greater use of face masks and greater social distance, the medical center researchers write.
RECEPTION: Medical staff greet patients with crowns at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on April 7. Photo: SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA
Similar findings were reported in a study involving more than 10,000 intensive care patients with confirmed coronary artery disease in the UK.
Mortality among the critically ill fell from 43.5% before the number of admissions to the intensive care unit peaked on April 1 to 34.3% after that date.
This report from the ICNARC Research Center in London has not yet been peer-reviewed.
DEATH: A dead patient will be transferred from the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York on April 9. Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP
Researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom reported in September that the proportion who die among those infected has decreased, although the number of cases has increased.
The development has been explained by increased infection among young people who do not have the same risk of becoming seriously ill and dying as the elderly, and that more cases of mild disease are detected.
The new New York study corrects for those factors.
– not so overwhelmed
Espen Rostrup Nakstad points out that the health service is no longer as overwhelmed by new patients as this winter and spring. In addition, treatment routines have been improved.
– Many have been admitted earlier in the course of the disease and have received supportive treatment such as oxygen at an earlier stage. This improves the chances of a less serious course.
HEALTH TOP: Deputy Director of Health Espen Rostrup Nakstad. Photo: Line Møller
– Tipped many the right way
Nakstad adds that the use of anti-inflammatory dexamethasone and some other principles of treatment has oriented many critically ill patients in the right way.
– All these conditions contribute to improved survival, says Deputy Health Director Nakstad.
He also believes that infection control measures play an important role.
– There is evidence to suggest that better protection means that you are exposed to fewer virus particles from close contact and therefore may develop less serious illness.
Nakstad claims that the death rate from covid-19 in the US is still higher than in many other countries.
He had previously estimated that the death rate for all corona infections is probably closer to half a percent than one percent.
– Mortality from covid-19 is not less affected by the number of people who are analyzed and, therefore, constitutes the basis of the calculation. Today, many times more people are tested for respiratory symptoms than before summer in most countries, says Espen Rostrup Nakstad.
