As COVID-19 or the coronavirus continues to spread across the world, many teams of researchers work around to clock to learn valuable data cat could be used to reduce the dangers of the pandemic. New data has been collected and processed from thousands of patients.
Patients who are affected by hypertension, diabetes, or heart disease are more susceptible to death caused by COVID-19, according to a new study. It was previously known that people over the age of 60 were more prone to deaths caused by the coronavirus, but the team of researchers argues that patients with the previously mentioned comorbidities feature considerably higher risks.
CT scans of the lungs were taken and evaluated using a scale that took several factors into account, among which we can count overall opacity, the presence of abnormal traits on the sides of the lungs, and the way in which the pathology was dispersed inside them.
The Risks Of Death From The Coronavirus Increases Due To Pre-Existent Diseases
During the study, the researchers observed 27 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and had also developed pneumonia. Some patients managed to achieve a full recovery while others died within the hospital. The COVID-19 diagnostic was reached via throat swab tests.
The patients received intravenous ribavirin 0.5 grams and oral oseltamivir 75 mg twice per day. Select patients also received glucocorticoid or immunoglobulin treatments.
Out of the 27 patients, 12 were men, and 15 were women, with a median age of 60 years. Seventeen recovered and where discharged from the hospital while 10 suffered fatal complications.
Both the median age and comorbidity with other diseases play an important role in the high death toll among older patients since the risks become considerably higher. It was also mentioned that there is no difference between severity and death toll among male or female patients. More data is available in the study, which was published in a scientific journal, cited by News-Medical.
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.