According to a British study published yesterday, about 350 million people around the world are at a high risk of contracting the "Covid-19" epidemic, and they will be required to be hospitalized if they are infected, while the number of injuries exceeded eight million around the world, amid increasing outbreaks in Latin America.
And it became known that the emerging corona virus affects people very differently, based on several factors related to health status, age, gender, and others.
Consequently, the epidemic does not afflict the vast majority of healthy young people with severe symptoms, on the contrary, its impact is often strong for the elderly who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Given what is known about risk factors, British researchers have sought to determine the varying risks for populations in 188 countries, depending on age, gender and health status.
The results, published by the British scientific journal The Lancet, showed that 1.7 billion people, or 22% of the world's population, have at least one risk factor that makes them more vulnerable to acute infection with the "Covid-19" epidemic.
Of these, 349 million people are particularly at risk of developing an acute form of the epidemic, and may need hospitalization if they are infected.
"As countries emerge from isolation, we hope our estimates will provide a useful starting point for" governments "looking for ways to protect people most vulnerable to the virus that continues to spread," said lead author Andrew Clarke of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The researcher refers to providing advice to those who are most at risk of committing to social spacing or giving them priority when conducting future vaccination campaigns.
The proportion of the population at risk decreases in areas where the population is younger. This is the case in Africa, where the emerging coronavirus virus risk factor is present in 16% of the population, or 283 million of the total population of 1.3 billion.
In Europe, this rate is 31%, or 231 million out of 747 million people.
"But a high percentage of severe cases can be fatal in Africa," Clark explains, given poor health infrastructure.
In addition, African countries with the highest incidence of AIDS such as Lesotho are at greater risk of the epidemic.
Islands such as Mauritius and Fiji also represent an increased risk due to the high proportion of the population suffering from diabetes, which is one of the factors that can exacerbate the symptoms of this viral disease, according to the study.
This comes at a time when the number of new infections in the Corona virus around the world rose to more than eight million, the day before yesterday, with the escalation of infection in Latin America and the United States.
The United States remains at the forefront with the largest number of injuries, amounting to nearly two million, or 25% of all reported cases. However, the disease is spreading faster in Latin America, which now accounts for 21% of all cases, according to Reuters statistics.
In Brazil, the number of cases and deaths caused by the "Covid-19" disease, caused by the Corona virus, has increased to the second place in the world in the number of infections.
As of yesterday, the number of deaths in the world had reached more than 434,000 and had doubled in seven weeks.
In the same context, Iran announced, yesterday, for the third day in a row, more than 100 deaths with the virus, which raises the total toll over 9000 deaths, and attributed that rise to the increasing movement of citizens.
The health ministry spokeswoman, Simat Sadat Larry, warned that bleak numbers could get worse if people do not stay home for the long weekend.
She said the increase in the daily toll is due "in large part to people's travel in recent weeks."
"We ask you to avoid unnecessary trips during the next holiday, so that we do not see an increase in numbers in the future."
Larry said that 115 additional deaths from the virus raised to 9,065 the total death toll.
She added that the tests confirmed that 2563 people were infected with "Covid-19", taking the death toll to 192439 since the outbreak of the epidemic in Iran.
Schools were closed and important public events and the prevention of inter-city mobility were postponed in March in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, before authorities gradually began easing measures from April.
Larry said that 10 of the 31 counties currently rated red, the highest level for measuring the epidemic risk. On Monday, the number was five provinces.
The United States is still in the lead with the largest number of casualties reaching nearly two million.
Dexamethasone saves a third of people with serious symptoms of the disease
Yesterday, results of tests described as a "major breakthrough" in the battle against the Corona virus showed that the steroid molecule "dexamethasone" was able to save a third of those infected with the virus whose most severe cases are.
Researchers led by a team from Oxford University tested the drug widely available to more than 2,000 HIV patients with serious symptoms. The drug reduced death rates among patients who could only breathe through the devices by 35%, while reducing mortality among those who received oxygen by a fifth, according to preliminary results.
The team said that daily doses of "dexamethasone" could prevent the death of one in eight patients using the respirator, and save one in every 25 patients who needed oxygen.
Paris - AFP