Since its onset in China in December, Covid-19 respiratory infection has resulted in more than 2,800 deaths out of 83,000 people infected in at least 53 countries. In most cases, it causes mild or moderate symptoms (cough, fever, fatigue ...), but in the most severe cases, patients can enter into severe acute respiratory distress or be victims of acute renal failure , or even a failure of several organs, which can lead to death. Europe 1 takes stock of the most affected populations.
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No deaths to be reported in young children
The most complete analysis to date, published on February 17 by the Chinese authorities and then on February 24 in the American medical journal Jama , shows that the mortality rate increases markedly with age. Out of nearly 45,000 confirmed cases, the average mortality rate is 2.3%. But there are no deaths among children under the age of 10. Up to the age of 39, the mortality rate remains very low, at 0.2%, then drops to 0.4% in those in their forties, 1.3% in those aged 50-59, 3.6% in those aged 60- 69 years and 8% in the 70-79 age group.
People over the age of 80 are most at risk with a death rate of 14.8%. Outside of China, there are also many elderly people among the victims. In Italy, the most affected country in Europe, at least six people among the first 14 deaths were aged 80 or over.
Another notable characteristic of Covid-19 is that men are more threatened than women by a fatal outcome: while they represent 51.4% of the cases confirmed in this study, they account for almost two-thirds of deaths (63, 8%). This could be explained "at least in part" by the higher proportion of smokers among men, tobacco being among the parameters which increase the risk of death.
Chronic diseases, aggravating factors
Chinese statistics also give indications of other possible risk factors, including having a chronic disease. The mortality rate thus climbs to 6.3% in patients with respiratory disease (respiratory insufficiency, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ...) It is even 10.5% in those with cardiovascular disease (insufficiency cardiac, history of stroke or infarction ...) and 7.3% in people with diabetes.
Patients with hypertension (6%) or cancer (5.6%) also have a higher mortality rate, while it drops to 0.9% in healthy people. These profiles are found among victims from other countries. For example, in Italy, among the first 14 victims, one was hospitalized for cancer, another had a heart attack a few days earlier, a third suffered from heart conditions and was on dialysis, and at least two others had serious diseases.