- Delayed treatment, comorbidity, old age most risky factors
- Covid-19 turning severe in many young patients
Covid-19 deaths are mostly occurring in the country for delayed treatment, preexisting comorbidities and old age while the severity of the infection has also increased recently, DGHS and hospital sources said.
“Among the severe Covid-19 patients, most of the patients are elderly people and with comorbidity. However, some young patients are also turning into severe cases,” Prof Dr Tahmina Shirin, Director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR) told the Daily Sun.
A study of the IEDCR published on April 17 said in reviewing information between late January 28 and April 15, it was found that 44 per cent of Covid-19 patients had to be hospitalised. On the other hand, the rest of the coronavirus patients took treatment at home or institutional isolation centres.
Some 52 per cent of patients who died were hospitalized within five days of showing symptom, 26 per cent within 50-10 days of showing symptoms and 12 per cent within 11-15 days of showing the symptoms of Covid-19 infection.
The IEDCR report said some 48 per cent of Covid-19 patients died within five days of hospitalization, 32 per cent died within 5-10 days of hospitalization, 12 per cent died within 11-15 days of hospitalization, 2 per cent died within 16-20 days of hospitalization and 6 per cent died after more than 20 days of hospitalization.
“Analysing the data, it was found that the severity of the Covid-19 infection has increased further,” the IEDCR report said.
Mentioning that 638 Covid-19 patients died in March while 941 died in April (till April 15), the report said more female Covid-19 patients died this year compared to last year.
Moreover, exposure to the virus also might have increased mental problems across the country, the report added.
Describing the cause of faster death in Covid-19 recently, Dr Mohammad Mushtuq Husain, adviser of the IEDCR told the Daily Sun “Delayed treatment, infection with a different variant of the coronavirus and high viral load are among the reasons behind faster death in coronavirus.”Many young people are also dying recently after the existence of South African variant of the coronavirus has been found here, said the health expert.
Talking to the Daily Sun, Dr Muktadir, in charge of the Covid-19 unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) said “Among the deaths in Covid-19, many patients were delayed to be hospitalized while many of them were with co-morbidity. Not only the elderly patients but also patients aged 35-50 have also died in this hospital.”
According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), more than 81 per cent of patients who died of coronavirus in the country are over 51 years old.
It said a total of 10385 Covid-19 patients died in the country with 102 new deaths reported on Sunday.
Among the deceased, the DGHS said 7,694 (74.09 percent) were male and 2,691 (25.91 percent) female.
The health directorate also said 5,859 (56.42 percent) of them were aged over 60 while 2,555 (24.60 percent) were between 51-60 years old, 1,155 (11.12 percent) 41-50 years old, 510 (4.91 percent) were between 31-40 years old, 195 (1.88 percent) were aged between 21-30 years, 71 (0.68 percent) were aged between 11-20 years and 40 (0.39 percent) were aged between 0-10 years old.
Health experts advised people to test for coronavirus immediately after feeling any symptoms or coming in contact with any coronavirus-infected patients in a bid to avoid severe conditions of the virus infection.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), older people, and people of all ages with pre-existing medical conditions (such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, or cancer) appear to develop serious illness more often than others.
The hospitals and DGHS sources said there is currently a scarcity of general and ICU (Intensive Care Unit) as all hospitals are overwhelmed with the Covid-19 patients.
Bangladesh saw another record of Covid-19 casualty, with 102 more deaths reported in the last 24 hours till 8:00 am Sunday. This is for the third consecutive day that the country reported more than 100 deaths.
