Abstract
Background: The SARS-CoV2 infection has rapidly spread throughout the world, particularly affecting those with underlying conditions.Objective: To assess the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the most prevalent comorbidities, among people who died of COVID-19 in Romania.Methods: The study comprised 814 deaths caused by COVID-19 between 22nd March and 8th May, 2020 as reported by the Ministry of Health. WHO data regarding deaths of the general population of Romania was used for comparison. The study analyzed the demographics, number and prevalence of comorbidities and calculated the relative risk for each comorbidity.Results: The study sample consisted of 61.4% males and 38.6% females; the mean age was 68.2 y; 90.9% of deaths occurred in people 50+ years. The mean number of pre-existing conditions was 2.73 (SD = 1.521), with 97.4% of the patients having at least one. The most prevalent comorbidities were hypertension (43.1%), diabetes (33.2%), and coronary heart disease (26.0%). The calculated relative risk of death due to COVID-19 was divided into 3 risk categories: high impact comorbidities (RR > 3) included diabetes RR = 6.426 (95% CI, 4.965–8.318), chronic renal disease RR = 4.338 (95% CI, 3.556–5.292) and hypertension RR=3.261 (95% CI, 2.687–3.958). The medium impact (RR = 2–3) group comprised chronic pulmonary disease RR = 2.615 (95% CI, 2.061–3.319) and chronic liver disease RR = 1.577 (95% CI, 1.183–2.104) and the low impact group (RR<2) –coronary heart disease RR = 0.664 (95% CI, 0.581–0.758), cancer RR = 0.515 (95% CI, 0.416–0.637) and stroke RR = 0.468 (95% CI, 0.370–0.593).Conclusion: In the studied sample, SARS-CoV-2 had a greater impact on people with diabetes, chronic renal disease and hypertension and a lesser impact on those with coronary heart disease, cancer and stroke. Therefore, future policies in Romania should focus on shielding people in the high-risk group and prioritizing them for vaccination, whilst encouraging those in the low risk group to continue seeking treatment for their underlying diseases.
Highlights
Coronaviruses represent a class of RNA viruses that are enveloped, positive-sense and belong to the Coronaviridae family
The first reported case of Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) emerged in Romania on 26th February, 2020 in Gorj County, where a 20-year-old male was infected by a 71-year-old Italian man from Cattolica who was diagnosed with coronavirus
21 patients had no preexisting conditions and 139 had various others that were not included in the study because the preliminary data did not result in significantly statistical information, meaning that the sample analyzed for the prevalence of comorbidities consisted of 654 cases (Table 3)
Summary
Coronaviruses represent a class of RNA viruses that are enveloped, positive-sense and belong to the Coronaviridae family. They can be encountered primarily in human and other mammalian hosts [1]. Even though most of the human infections of coronaviruses are mild, they have been responsible for two other notable epidemics in the last two decades that had high mortality rates (10% and 37% for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, respectively) and caused a significant number of deaths [2,3,4]. As of May 8, 2020, a number of 4,009,284 cases have been documented globally, with a total of 275,976 reported deaths [8]. The SARS-CoV2 infection has rapidly spread throughout the world, affecting those with underlying conditions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
