They have overlooked the elderly, says Marcel Olde Rikkert professor of geriatric medicine at Radboud University Nijmegen to NRC. He calls it the “blind spot” in medicine.
The pandemic policy was, from December around the world, determined by virologists, epidemiologists, infection doctors. Olde Rikkert: “Everyone looked hopefully at them, the owners of the problem. And they looked at the virus, the exciting new virus from China; How it spreads and what it does to organs. They did not look at the host, who is most affected by it: the very elderly. ”
But there are now 9,053 very elderly people in Dutch nursing homes infected with the virus. 1,696 of them died, professional association Verenso reported Wednesday, 1,861 have recovered.
The old body functions differently from the younger one, explains Olde Rikkert. As the age increases, the vessels become narrower, the heart pumps less well, the blood flows less quickly and organs and parts such as the brain and joints wear out. On average, eighties have a body temperature of 35 to 36 degrees. The blood flows with difficulty, so they are cold. If an eighty year old measures 37 degrees, she will have a fever if she is normally at 35 degrees.
The elderly are also much more likely to experience delirium as a result of excessive defenses.
According to Olde Rikkert, policymakers looked at everyone in the same way in the corona crisis. “You really have to look at the elderly differently, they are constructed differently.”
And perhaps most importantly, says Olde Rikkert: in March and April, the nursing homes were in the back of the line when distributing the masks, aprons and glasses. The bulk went to hospitals. There was too little of everything. So little that the RIVM guidelines were adapted to it: “Nursing home staff only works protected if the client is infected (or suspected of it).”
And even as scientists worldwide search for a corona vaccine, the older body is forgotten, says Olde Rikkert. “All vaccine tests are done in people in their fifties! ”
Sources): NRC – .
