Every Fifth Inhabitant Of The Earth Has A Disease That Can Worsen The Course Of COVID-19

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 23:16

Every fifth inhabitant of the Earth has a disease that can worsen the course of COVID-19

4% of the population has a high risk of being hospitalized due to coronavirus infection. Accordingly, chronic diseases are not a sentence for COVID-19.

Photo: unitednations / Unsplash

Approximately every fifth inhabitant of the planet (22%) suffers from diseases that, if infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, can worsen the course of COVID-19. These are the conclusions reached by scientists who estimated the prevalence of chronic diseases based on data from 188 countries. New research published in The Lancet Global Health.

Scientists' estimates have shown that in case of infection, hospitalization will be required for 4% of the population. That is, according to their expectations, for many people with comorbidities, the risk of a severe course of COVID-19 remains low.

The risk of hospitalization varies by age: from less than 1% in people under 20, about 20% over 70. In all age groups over 65, the risk of hospitalization for men is twice as high as for women.

Scientists also reported that in the world at least one disease that can make the course of COVID-19 more severe is in 5% of people under the age of 20 and in 66% of the population aged 70 and over. For people of working age (15-64 years old), this indicator averages 23%.

The authors focused only on chronic diseases, which are indicated in all international guidelines as risk factors for severe COVID-19. They did not touch on other factors associated with complications of coronavirus infection - low socio-economic status and ethnicity.

Scientists based their analysis on incidence estimates given by the Global Burden of Diseases project and UN estimates. The indicators of these estimates are higher than the official data of different countries: these calculations are carried out in order to roughly establish the number of cases of various diseases that statistics did not take into account. Diseases may not be included in statistics when they are not severe enough or are simply not diagnosed.

“As countries emerge from quarantine, governments are looking for ways to protect the most vulnerable people from the virus that is still circulating. We hope our assessments provide a useful starting point for developing protective measures,”said Andrew Clark, assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and co-author of the study.

Clarke noted that measures to prevent morbidity in vulnerable populations can include introducing social distancing that is appropriate to the degree of risk. In the future, it is necessary to establish a priority level for vaccination of the population.