Almost every hospital patient admitted for the coronavirus in New York was already suffering from an underlying health condition.
A study published this week by the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that 94% of coronavirus patients in the New York City area, the hardest-hit region in the United States, were suffering from another disease other than COVID-19, according to Time magazine.
Recommended Stories
Researchers examined the medical records of 5,700 coronavirus patients who had been admitted to the hospital system with the largest amount of cases in the country in March and early April.
The median patient age was 63 years old, and the most common underlying ailments were hypertension, affecting 53% of the patients, and obesity, affecting 42% of patients with BMI data. 32% of the patients were admitted already suffering from diabetes.
More than 2,600 of the patients eventually left the hospital, either because they died or were discharged, and about 14% of them had been treated in the intensive care unit. Twelve percent required a ventilator, 3% had kidney replacement therapy, and 21% died. 88% of people on ventilators died, and those suffering from diabetes faced increased chances of being put on a ventilator.
“Having serious comorbidities increases your risk,” one of the study’s authors, Karina Davidson, said. “This is a very serious disease with a very poor outcome for those who have severe infections from it. We want patients with serious chronic disease to take a special precaution and to seek medical attention early, should they start showing signs and symptoms of being infected. That includes knowing that they’ve been exposed to someone who has this virus.”
This study corroborates another set of data from Italy, suggesting elderly people with underlying conditions are far more likely to die of the disease.
Italy’s national health authority concluded in mid-March that 99% of coronavirus fatalities in the country were individuals who suffered from previous medical conditions.
More than 75% had high blood pressure, roughly 35% had diabetes, and one-third had heart disease.
At the time the study was conducted, the average age of coronavirus death in Italy was 79.5, and only 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. It is believed that all of Italy’s victims under 40 were males with underlying health issues.
As of today, almost 50,000 people have died in the U.S., compared to over 25,000 in Italy and at least 190,000 worldwide.
