most intensive care patients are under 40

The number of patients with coronavirus under 40 in intensive care last month overtook that of older age groups in Brazil. The data comes in the midst of the health catastrophe the country is going through, brought about by the new variants of covid-19.

For example, the number of people aged 39 or younger admitted to intensive care units due to the pandemic rose sharply in March to over 11,000, 52.2% of the total, according to the UCI project.

To measure the data: at the start of the health crisis, this figure was only 14.6%, and between September and February, 45%.

“Before, there 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 Dr Ederlon Rezende, coordinator of the project, an initiative of the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine (AMIB).

Why is the number of young internees increasing?

The specialist pointed out that various factors they could be the source of the increase.

Patients over 80 years of age -which went from 13.6% to 7.8% of the total in intensive care in Brazil in March- are now mostly vaccinated.

The youth they are also more inclined to be exposed to the virus, either because they have to leave their home to work, or because they believe they are less vulnerable, assured the professional doctor.

Another factor may be a variant of the virus native to Brazil, known as P1, or Manaus, which experts say is partly responsible for the number of deaths by covid-19 in the country will skyrocket in March.

The numbers suggest that P1 – which can re-infect people who had the original strain of the virus – also can be more virulentRezende said.

“Younger patients, and without pre-existing diseases, arrive in intensive care units also with more severe cases“of the disease, he added to the international agency AFP.

No longer hospitalized without previous illnesses

The number of patients in intensive care no pre-existing illnesses it rose by almost a third in March, to 30.3% of the total.

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

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

The disease has killed 351,000 in a country of 212 million people, a death toll just behind that of the United States.

Source: AFP

DD