RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The federal government’s campaign describes the fatal cases of the new coronavirus as “rare”. According to the latest survey by population age groups, provided by the Ministry of Health, deaths of individuals under 60 represent ten percent of the total in Brazil. However, when it comes to critical cases, young people and adults account for approximately half.
According to this official age group analysis, at the time when the country recorded 59 deaths, six victims were under 60 years of age – about ten percent of the total. Out of 391 critical cases, 188 (48 percent) were young people and adults. On Friday, the death toll increased to 92 (2.7 percent of the total of 3,417 cases), although the government portfolio failed to disclose the breakdown by age groups.
“It is not uncommon. This notion that young people will have no problem [with the virus] is an illusion, it doesn’t represent the reality in our hospitals,” says infectologist Naihma Fontana, who attends an ICU (intensive care unit) in Sorocaba, in the countryside of the state of São Paulo.
In her opinion, by encouraging isolation only of the elderly, President Jair Bolsonaro disregards the death rate and ignores the sequelae left in those who survive severe coronavirus cases.
“We have patients in critical condition of every age. They are 46, 48, 33 year olds. They are all intubated, with mechanical ventilation. The virus doesn’t choose age range. Naturally, older people die because of complications, but young people do too. They are in a critical condition, yes,” Fontana says.
The infectologist understands that the state and part of the population must stop addressing the issue as if they were numbers. She adds that it makes no sense for the government to disregard the mortality rates of victims under the age of 60.
“They say two percent is low mortality, but what if it’s your father, your mother, your son? That’s not two percent, that’s 100 percent! People must be aware,” says the doctor.
Sanitary doctor Sylvana Medeiros also says she fails to understand the campaign’s goal. She believes that focusing only on the elderly makes no sense when it comes to controlling an epidemic.
“Children get sick to a lesser extent, but they get sick too. What to do with children who have chronic conditions? Isolate them? What about the young? If we don’t want to place our population at risk, we have to think on several fronts, comprehensively – not speaking of isolating only the elderly, because young people, theoretically, die less”, Medeiros says.
Critical cases can have permanent sequelae
Fontana points out that even for youths who have overcome severe Covid-19 cases, the experience is traumatic for the body and may entail permanent sequelae.
“People forget that before they die, there are a number of events. They have no idea what it’s like to be intubated with mechanical ventilation. This can lead to a number of complications,” says the infectologist.
According to the doctor, there are risks of the patient, young or not, suffering irreversible sequelae, such as permanent pulmonary fibrosis. “Patients will suffer from respiratory dysfunction for the rest of their lives. And then what? Is it just a matter of separating the living and the dead? How are these surviving patients doing now?” she questions.
“The president’s statement shows how completely unaware he is of what happens inside the ICU and the hospitals. We see more and more cases of Covid-19 coming in every day, of all ages. If we aren’t confirming more it is because there are no tests, but the cases exist”, Fontana declares.
Source: UOL