Covid-19 has left about 17,000 confirmed deaths in Colombia in just over five months, according to the Ministry of Health; a figure that in terms of the pandemic is lower (325 per million inhabitants) when compared in this indicator with other countries that have registered a high number of cases.
The national fatality rate for the disease caused by the virus is 3.17 percent and the ratio of deaths to the population is 0.0329 percent.
(You may be interested in: WHO expects covid-19 pandemic to end in less than two years)
Despite these figures, the Ministry of Health, when presenting the second report on excess mortality this year in Colombia, which serves to understand the impact of the pandemic, showed that Of the 15,728 deaths that exceeded the averages of the last five years between May 18 and August 2, 12,393 were from covid-19 confirmed.
This report shows that the growth of these deaths has been skyrocketing since June in a trend that has been maintained, which could place covid-19 as one of the main causes of death this year in the country.
This is confirmed by an analysis of EL TIEMPO of the deaths caused by the pandemic compared to the causes of death in the country last year, without including the percentage variations expected for the latter.
For example, the 16,968 deaths that until yesterday Saturday had been confirmed in the country have surpassed all external individual causes of death recorded by Dane last year on your vital statistics.
For the sample it is that in 2019 there were 12,981 homicides, which represents that covid-19 exceeds this cause by 20 percent.
On the other hand, deaths from the pandemic so far are 2.4 times more than those caused by traffic accidents (6,801) in all of last year, eight times those caused by events of undetermined intention (2,072) and 5 times more than the suicides committed in 2019.
And when comparing the deaths of the pandemic so far with the natural causes of death in 2019, it is observed that the covid-19 in just five months has already caused almost half of the deaths from ischemic heart diseases (heart attacks) registered all last year (38,475).
If a more specific relationship were made, it would be that in 2019 there were 3,206 fatal heart attacks per month on average, while covid-19 has caused 3,313 monthly deaths on average, a higher figure.
(Also: Is Colombia an example of successful containment of the pandemic?)
On the side of respiratory diseases, Covid-19 already exceeds all deaths caused by chronic diseases of the lower respiratory tract by five months (16,199) last year. And compared to deaths from other pneumonia (9,117), the disease developed by Sars-CoV-2 already almost doubles them.
The same happens with cerebrovascular diseases that have such an impact on mortality tables at the national level. The pandemic already surpassed these deaths in confirmed deaths last year (15,543).
On the side of hypertensive diseases, In just five months, deaths from covid-19 already almost double those caused by these chronic diseases last year (9,045).
When reviewing the mortality caused by other common and disturbing diseases for public health, such as diabetes, the coronavirus long ago exceeded the lethal figures of this alteration last year (7,829). And the virus has already quadrupled all deaths produced in 2019 from diseases of the nervous system (4,474).
(Also: Study reveals ‘high’ and ‘hidden’ coronavirus viral load in children)
As is known, stomach cancer is the malignant tumor that causes the most deaths among men and women, to the point that last year it left 5,382 victims, what compared is a third of what has caused covid-19 in this time.
Continuing with the tumors, breast, which is the most lethal in women, caused 3,535 deaths last year, almost a fifth of those caused by the pandemic. A more or less similar relationship against prostate cancer (3,380), the deadliest neoplasm in men in 2019.
When seeing the deaths left last year by a virus such as HIV, the trigger for AIDS (which has also been classified independently), was 2,425, almost seven times less than those produced by covid-19.
And finally, it is worth mentioning that covid-19 has already claimed as many deaths as if those that left together last year heart failure (2,333), all endocrine diseases (2,116), leukemia (2,018), problems nutritional disorders (1,763), complications of the appendix, hernias and intestinal obstructions (1,797), circulatory system disorders (1,610), brain tumors (1,431), mental disorders (1,360), tuberculosis (1,104) and fatal infections (1,101).
The data of the covid-19, in the opinion of Luis Jorge Hernández, doctor in Public Health, “constitute a historical catastrophe in demographic and public health terms, which leaves all demographic variability”.
HEALTH UNIT
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