Coronavirus in Brazil: there are more young patients in intensive care than older adults



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A patient with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is transported to a field hospital at the Dell'Antonia gym in Santo Andre, a suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 7, 2021 (REUTERS / Amanda Perobelli))
A patient with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is transported to a field hospital in the Dell’Antonia gym in Santo Andre, a suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 7, 2021 (REUTERS / Amanda Perobelli))

The number Covid-19 patients under 40 in intensive care outperformed older age groups in Brazil last monthan investigator said on Sunday, in the middle of a A deadly viral boom fueled in part by a new variant.

The number of people aged 39 and under admitted to intensive care units for covid-19 rose sharply in March to reach over 11,000, 52.2% of the total, according to the UCI project.

At the start of the pandemic, this figure was only 14.6%, and between September and February, 45%.

“Before, it was a population that normally only developed a milder form of the disease and did not need intensive care. The increase (…) of this age group is therefore very significant ”, said the doctor Ederlon Rezende, coordinator of the project, an initiative of the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine (AMIB).

Younger patients, and without pre-existing illnesses, also arrive in intensive care units with more severe cases.

He said that several factors could be at the origin of this increase.

The patients over 80 years old, which went from 13.6% to 7.8% of the total in intensive care in Brazil in March, are now, mainly vaccinated.

The young people are also more likely to be exposed to the virusEither because they have to leave their homes to work, or because they think they are less vulnerable, he said.

Another factor may be a variant of the virus originating in Brazil, known as P1, which experts say is partly responsible for the number of deaths from covid-19 in the country that exploded in March.

The figures suggest that the P1, which can re-infect people with the original strain of the virus, it can also be more virulentRezende said.

A patient in an intensive care unit at Parelheiros Municipal Hospital in São Paulo (REUTERS / Amanda Perobelli)
A patient in an intensive care unit at the Parelheiros municipal hospital in São Paulo (REUTERS / Amanda Perobelli)

“Younger patients, and without pre-existing diseases, reach intensive care units also with more severe cases” of the disease, he told the AFP.

The number of patients in intensive care without pre-existing pathologies increased by almost a third in March, up to 30.3% of the total.

And the proportion of patients on ventilators due to the pandemic It hit a record 58.1% in March, according to project data.

Brazil recorded more than 66,500 deaths due to covid-19 in March, more than double the country’s previous monthly record, in July 2020.

Disease claimed 351,000 lives in this country of 212 million people, a death toll that is just behind that of the United States.

(With information from AFP)

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