[ad_1]
From: TT
Published:
Photo: Amir Nabizadeh / TT
Worried trend. More older people enter hospital care with severe covid. Stock Photography.
The trend seems to be breaking and again more people die with covid. Almost all of the new deaths during the fall are people over the age of 70.
It’s not just people in nursing homes that are affected, people living at home also have a high death rate if they end up in the hospital, according to a lead researcher.
– The message is that it is a serious disease with high mortality for many older people. Don’t relax, but carefully follow infection control advice, says Maria Eriksdotter, chief physician for geriatrics at Karolinska University Hospital and professor at Karolinska Institute.
The downward trend with fewer deaths with covid-19 appears to have been broken. Having had one or two deaths a day, the mid-October average is significantly higher.
Nine out of ten of those who die with covid-19 are over 70 years old. During the fall, a large proportion died in nursing homes, but according to statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare, most died in hospitals, where they usually came from their usual home.
This shows that mortality in covid-19 is high, not only among the most fragile and with multiple patients in nursing homes, but also among the elderly who live at home and who come for hospital care, says Maria Eriksdotter.
– They are not usually in the intensive care unit but in our geriatric clinics, infection clinics or internal medicine. Many of them have become ill at home. This is a group that has been somewhat forgotten in media discussions, she says.
Fears increase the death toll
She is deeply concerned about the current development of the infection.
– There were hardly any people admitted for covid-19 in geriatric clinics during the summer. Now the number is increasing again, quite fast. This worries me immensely, because the risk that mortality will also increase is great, although we have learned a lot since last spring, says Maria Eriksdotter.
According to a study he did with 1,800 covid patients at seven geriatric clinics in Stockholm between March and August, the death rate was around 15 percent.
– The mortality rate is high, about ten times higher than the mortality rate that we usually see in geriatric clinics, and that is because the disease is very serious.
There is no reliable data on where the 70s are infected. But the risk increases significantly when the spread of infection in society increases, says Maria Eriksdotter.
– Many young people work in the home care service, for example. A transmission path can be through them. Despite current best hygiene practices, asymptomatic spread can be a risk.
The infection can also occur in stores, on public transportation, during necessary visits to medical care, and the like. A third route of infection is related, even when there is a risk that asymptomatic people may become infected.
Feel healthy
The vast majority of people over 70 live in their own homes and most perceive life as good until age 85, according to studies.
– Many feel healthy. But many have cognitive deficits and there may also be a picture of illness with, for example, high blood pressure, perhaps diabetes, impaired kidney function, may have previously had a stroke.
These are factors that increase your risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from COVID-19. But only age itself is a risk factor, because, among other things, lung capacity deteriorates with age, according to Maria Eriksdotter.
This summer, she and her research colleagues pointed out that the ban on visiting nursing homes and special advice for the elderly (restrictions that have now been removed) are not enough to protect the elderly. Instead, infection in society must be radically reduced.
When the trend now goes in the opposite direction, it requires everyone in society to think for themselves, he emphasizes.
– Many young people work in hospitals, nursing homes and in home care services; this means that they should also check their behavior so that they are not spreading infections.
Mouth guard and visor
Would have liked to have seen tighter restrictions, including more widespread use of mouth guard.
– I can think that there should be mouth guards in stores and where there is a lot of congestion, like the subway. Mouthguards or visors for home care staff when working at home, and that you should have more mouthguards or visors in hospitals, not just in close-care situations.
It also emphasizes the importance of evaluating staff in home care services and nursing homes, and that everyone, young and old, should have the opportunity to easily and simply evaluate themselves at the slightest symptom.
– Then we would have better control and knowledge of the spread of the infection and the opportunity to limit it.
TT: What is your advice to the 70+ people who are concerned about the fall / winter and the spread of infection that we are seeing?
– My advice is to carefully follow the advice of the Public Health Agency, how to keep your distance, and be cautious: shop when there are fewer people, avoid public transport, avoid social contact, limit the number of people you meet and with what often, and be seen outdoors, says Maria Eriksdotter.
Published:
