Saturday, March 21, 2020

Why have many coronavirus patients died in Italy?




The country's high death toll is due to an ageing population, overstretched health system and the way fatalities are reported.
Of the 47,000 people confirmed coronavirus patients in Italy, 4,032 so far have died - with a record increase of 627 in the last 24 hours.
By contrast china has almost twice as many cases ,81,250, but 3,253 fatalities
In very crude terms, this means that around eight per cent of confirmed coronavirus patients have died in Italy, compared to four per cent in China. By this measure Germany, which has so far identified 13,000 cases and 42 deaths, has a fatality rate of just 0.3 percent.
So Why the disparity?
According to Prof Walter Ricciardi, scientific adviser to Italy’s minister of health, the country’s mortality rate is far higher due to demographics - the nation has the second oldest population worldwide - and the manner in which hospitals record deaths.
Country
cases
deaths
%age
Median age
china
81,303
3,259
4
67
Italy
47,021
4,032
8
46
Spain
21,571
1,093
5

Iran
20,610
1,556
7.5

Germany
20,046
69
0.3

USA
19,774
275
1.4

France
12,632
450
3.5

South ko
8,799
102
1

uK
3,983
177
4







A study in JAMA this week found that almost 40 per cent of infections and 87 per cent of deaths in the country have been in patients over 70 years old.




Monday, March 16, 2020

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Monday, March 2, 2020