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Martin BUREAU / AFP

The mortality figures due to Covid-19 are underestimated, in a proportion which would be 12.4%, because they do not take into account the deaths at home of patients suffering from cardiac arrest, according to a study published on the 14th. December by a research team from Lille.

"It seemed unimaginable to us that people would only die of Covid-19 in hospitals and nursing homes, which was confirmed to us by feedback from the field from emergency physicians", summarizes Professor Hervé for AFP. Hubert, president of the National Cardiac Arrest Registry (RéAC).

A fairly precise estimate

“They regularly reported cases of Covid patients suffering from cardiac arrest at home.

We then asked them to systematically diagnose whether patients dying of cardiac arrests were also affected by Covid-19 ”, continues Professor Hubert, from the Public Health Department of the University of Lille (ULR 2694).

Published Monday in the journal BMC Medical Research Methodology and reported Thursday by

La Voix du Nord

, this study confirms the hypothesis: according to Professor Hubert, "home deaths represent 12.4% of the death toll related to Covid-19 recorded in hospitals and nursing homes ”, which serve as the basis for statistics on virus-related mortality.

"This is information that the Directorate General of Health or Public Health France did not have," he said.

Better guide patients 

This study was carried out over a period of 45 days between early March and mid-April during the first wave of the epidemic, with 20 SMUR centers distributed throughout the territory and representing 10% of the population.

Since then, "we have continued our monitoring, and the trend is the same", according to this specialist.

Continued research has also shown that no patient diagnosed with Covid-19 suffering from cardiac arrest "survived 30 days, while this survival rate is 5 to 6%" for the others.

"It is necessary to improve the sorting procedures for Covid-19 patients, that they be better oriented as soon as they pass in front of a doctor" and thus limit domestic mortality, warns Professor Hubert.

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