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SINGAPORE: Failure to add COVID-19 patients who died of heart problems instead of the coronavirus to the official death toll is “consistent with international practice,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Three confirmed cases have died from heart problems and not from COVID-19 since early April. Their causes of death include ischemic heart disease and heart attack, and their deaths were not included in the official number of deaths of 20.
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There have been medical reports linking COVID-19 to heart problems.
The Health Ministry said in response to questions from the CNA that it reports all deaths in patients infected with COVID-19.
“However, we add to the COVID-19 death count the cases where the attending physician or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death due to COVID-19 infection,” the health ministry said.
“This has been our consistent practice, applied to both Singaporeans and foreigners in Singapore. It is consistent with international practice to classify deaths. “
READ: COVID-19: 33 cases found as ‘false positives’ including health worker at Singapore Expo community care center
Health Ministry director of medical services Kenneth Mak told reporters on Friday (May 8) that the ministry’s focus is to ask whether the deaths are “directly attributable to COVID-19 infection or complications related to COVID-19 infection. “
The ministry would denounce them as such if their deaths were related to the coronavirus, he said.
“In fact, we are quite transparent in announcing and reporting all the deaths we have,” added associate professor Mak.
“Even if they were not due to COVID-19 infection, they would still be reported, but we will not necessarily attribute them to COVID-19 unless the medical authorities have informed us, whether the doctors are treating the patient or the coroner, if cases of forensic doctors were made.
“If we were told directly that these were deaths attributable to the ‘COVID-19 infection’, then we will report them as such.”
The Health Ministry told CNA that 86 male foreign workers between the ages of 25 and 59 died in 2018 in Singapore due to heart disease.
READ: Singapore reports 876 new cases of COVID-19, totaling more than 23,000
THE THREE DEATHS
Three deaths among COVID-19 cases are not included in the official number of deaths because they died from heart problems.
A 32-year-old Indian citizen, Case 1604, died at his place of residence on April 8. The long-term pass holder was examined by COVID-19 on April 7 and advised to stay home, pending the results. Her X-ray results showed that she did not have pneumonia.
He was confirmed to have the disease after his death, and the Ministry of Health said a day later that the cause of death was ischemic heart disease and “not due to complications from COVID-19 infection.”
A 47-year-old Bangladeshi citizen, Case 17410, died on May 1. It was also confirmed that he had COVID-19 after his death, the Ministry of Health reported on May 2.
On May 3, the health ministry said the cause of death was ischemic heart disease.
On May 5, a 44-year-old Bangladeshi citizen, Case 16370, died of acute myocardial infarction. He was admitted to the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on April 29 and was treated for a heart attack, the Ministry of Health said.
He tested positive for the coronavirus the same day he was admitted to the hospital.
Ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease, is when the coronary arteries narrow. This can cause chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and fatigue due to inadequate blood flow to the heart.
These narrowings occur when cholesterol and layered fat accumulate along the lining of the coronary vessels.
When any one of the three arteries is suddenly blocked, a heart attack occurs. According to the SingHealth website, this can happen because a blood clot suddenly forms on the narrow portion, or a plaque full of fat breaks or breaks.
Acute myocardial infarction is the medical term for heart attack.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the United States, as virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells grown in the laboratory. (Brochure / National Institutes of Health / AFP)
Coagulation, heart attacks linked to COVID-19
Reports from doctors in China, Europe, and the United States have pointed to a dangerous complication of COVID-19: blood clotting.
These “thrombotic events” occur for a variety of reasons among intensive care patients, but the rates among COVID-19 patients are much higher than would be expected, AFP reported.
READ: Mysterious blood clots are COVID-19’s latest lethal surprise
READ: Rare COVID-19 syndrome kills three children in New York, says Cuomo
A recent article from the Netherlands in the journal Thrombosis Research found that 31 percent of 184 patients suffered thrombotic complications, a number the researchers rated “remarkably high”, even if extreme consequences like amputation are rare.
Another team of researchers from New York University Grossman School of Medicine found that 18 patients with severe COVID-19 showed signs of a heart attack on their EKGs, medical reports reported.
But more than half of these patients didn’t have a blockage in any major artery, according to the team’s studies. These findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 17.
This was followed by reports on April 25 that the first victim of the coronavirus in the US was believed to be. USA, California woman Patricia Dowd, had died of a heart attack while suffering from flu-like symptoms.
Authorities confirmed months after her death that she had the coronavirus, making her the first COVID-19 fatality in the US. USA
The Santa Clara County medical examiner wrote at the official autopsy that the Sars-CoV-2 infection, which causes COVID-19, was detected in the woman’s heart, trachea, lungs, and intestines, San Francisco reported Chronicle.
READ: The first death from the US coronavirus. USA It happened in early February in California
He apparently recovered from his flu-like symptoms before dying of what was thought to be a heart attack, but the autopsy found that he died after a valve in his heart was broken, it was reported.
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