Why do so many coronavirus patients die every day? – Four scientists answer – CITIZEN
Increased morbidity of the Delta variant, deficiencies in the health system, delays in vaccination, especially in people with concomitant diseases, but also differences in the quality of health services, lead to an increased number of deaths from coronavirus in recent days.
Despite the fact that scientists emphasize that the thousands of cases of the Omicron variant are relatively mild, we see dozens of patients end up every day. Just yesterday we had 80 dead, a number that moves to these levels almost every day.
Why is this happening; It is the question that is constantly asked.
Health officials are on standby until the Omicron variant prevails to determine if this variant will eventually be milder than previous strains of the virus, as the population samples so far younger and with fewer concomitant diseases, as recorded by studies. from South Africa and Great Britain.
For mortality that has increased in recent days talk to in.gr four experts, pointing out both the peculiarities of the virus variants, as well as the problems identified in the country’s health system, as a whole.
The Delta still prevails
Assistant Professor of Pathology EKPA, Infectious Diseases Specialist Garyfalia Poulakou, points out that deaths due to complications of the disease occur at least 15 days after the initial disease, which means that even more statistics were affected by the Delta variant, clarifying that severe . are taken to the ICU and some of them end up there. “The cases that are now treated in common wards are at least 50% of cases that are infected with the Delta variant, which causes serious disease. Some of these cases lead to intensive care and in this way Delta maintains the increased mortality.
In terms of hospitalization conditions, these days we have an increased attendance at outpatient clinics. But there are no shortages of beds. There was an increase of 30% in hospitalizations and 8-10% in ICUs, but with the interventions that were made, these cases were removed from the health system.
In the coming weeks we will see what difficulties we will face as Omicro is described as lighter, but it is contagious. Thus, as in absolute numbers the cases of infection will be more, we expect proportionally to see how the hospital will evolve. Because the volume of the new wave will show how “innocent” the new variant is. It is important to look at it, the data we have so far as a population with a lower average age. We expect new data from the USA where there is a significant population with metabolic syndrome, one of the very critical factors for the outcome of the disease.
However, we must point out that 86% of those who end up are unvaccinated and only 14% of deaths are related to cases with serious concomitant diseases “.
Difference in the quality of services
In the same direction, the former president of the Hellenic Society of Infections and member of the committee of experts Panagiotis Gargalianos noted that the issue of deaths is multifactorial and cited a series of parameters that could explain why. As he pointed out, we need to know his age, the concomitant diseases, his condition in terms of vaccination, the time of arrival at the hospital, but also the clinical situation at the time of admission to the hospital – pointing to the parameter of deficiencies in primary health care. He added, however, that “the Units and the Clinics are not the same in terms of the quality of the services provided”, indicating the pathogenesis in the secondary (hospital) care. He explained that it matters what condition the patient reached in the hospital, what treatment he was given until he got there, what other health problems he had and how aggravating his condition and age were.
“But the incidents that end today,” he notes, “are incidents that were introduced a month or two ago, they are Delta incidents. “And to see Omicron, we have to wait at least a fortnight.”
Until then, patients infected with coronavirus, according to Mr. Gargalianos, should immediately contact the doctor, especially if they have symptoms, have another condition and are not vaccinated. And break in the hospital, have trouble breathing, nausea or fever.
Waiting for Omicron to prevail
The pulmonologist, curator A ‘at Sotiria hospital, George Cheilas, on his part, stressed that the number of deaths is not increased compared to what we know about the Delta variant, which is the one that prevails among hospitalized patients. “We still have to wait, at least one to two weeks for the outcome of the Delta variants.
For Omicron, we have 35,000 new diagnoses a day, but the hospitalizations are still in 10% of the patients. We already know that it causes 70-90% fewer hospitalizations than the previous strains, in a vaccinated population. “So when this variant prevails, we will find out what kind of treatment is needed, since vaccination contributes significantly to the outcome of the disease.”
5% increase in mortality from poor services
According to the general secretary of the Federation of Hospital Doctors Associations of Greece (OENGE), neurosurgeon Panagiotis Papanikolaou, is attributed to the pathogenesis of the country’s health system, who underlined that:
- Primary Health Care in our country is non-existent, with the result that patients arrive at hospitals in a very bad condition,
- in hospitals, receive services from doctors of other specialties, due to understaffing,
- many are intubated outside the intensive care unit and die before finding a bed in an ICU, while at the same time,
- tracking and epidemiological surveillance is virtually non-existent.
“All this is a problematic treatment, something that has already been pointed out by the Lytra-Tsiodra study”, noted Mr. Papanikolaou, while he underlined that the hospitalizations still have Delta cases and we have to wait another 15 months to find out variant of Homeric. He added that “already in Great Britain and the USA the hospitalizations are increasing rapidly. In the US, the number of patients has reached 140,000, a record number since the beginning of the pandemic, despite the very strict criteria that apply there for imports.
But beyond the characteristics of patients, the level of health services or their inadequacy, can increase mortality by 1% or even exceed 5% depending on the variants of the virus.
At this point, he explained that patients even in the mildest cases need proper hydration, something that can not happen without medical and nursing staff, since there are no relatives who support the health system. As for oxygenation, all hospitals face problems of simultaneously covering patients with sufficient oxygen, due to limited infrastructure.
Source: in.gr
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