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Infections with the new coronavirus are being concentrated among the younger population, and although in most cases these people are asymptomatic , cases in which Covid-19 is severe can also occur.

This is warned by specialists from hospitals in Barcelona, ​​where a worrying epidemiological situation is registered, with evidence of community transmission, as in Zaragoza; and upward trend of new infections , as highlighted yesterday in a press conference by María José Sierra, deputy director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES).

Also in that press conference, Sierra reported the increase of 971 new cases detected in the previous 24 hours, of which 415 were concentrated in Aragon and 182 in Catalonia. The epidemiologist recalled that most are mild cases and that the average age of positives is 45 years .

This portrait coincides with that observed in hospitals: the experience in the ICU and hospitals indicates that if the average age of the patients admitted to the ward in the hard months of the pandemic was around 60 years, now hospitalized patients have an average age close to 50 years .

In the last two weeks, reports Hospital del Mar , the average age of hospitalized patients is 50 years, almost all with pneumonia. The majority (26) are in the plant, and only four are under intensive surveillance today. This is also observed by Alex Soriano, head of the Infectious Diseases Service at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona "Now we have younger people admitted , although they are very Few require ICU treatment . "

According to reports from the Health Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia, today there are 65 patients considered seriously in the community hospitals .

The perception of Rafael Máñez, head of Intensive Care Medicine at Bellvitge Hospital, one of the centers close to areas affected by outbreaks, is that income is increasing - "in a week we have gone from eight to twenty admitted patients" - and they are younger than those seen during the pandemic .

Both specialists agree that they are also patients with a better prognosis , in line with what has already been experienced in the first pandemic wave. "Young patients in principle have a better prognosis than older patients," recalls Soriano. "I don't see any difference from what we already saw in previous months." However, it affects the fact that a 40-year-old patient hospitalized for pneumonia is "somewhat abnormal."

Although in general the evolution of young people with Covid-19 is usually favorable, there can also be particularly serious cases. "Young people are not immune to the virus," adds Máñez. Also people without "previous pathologies", highlights.

In fact, what underlies these epidemiological observations is the question of why there are young people, and not so young but healthy, who suffer the worst forms of SARS-CoV-2 disease , while others pass the infection almost without noticing. bill. This is something for which scientists still have no answer.

"My opinion, and what we are studying, is that the blood group and the associated antibody pattern of each individual can influence the susceptibility to contract the infection and its subsequent severity, as a recent study in The New England has already suggested. "says Máñez, who is already analyzing, within a research project, serological samples from patients with this objective.

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