Solopos.com, BRAZIL – At the start of the corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic in Brazil, many elderly people infected and killed. However, since the beginning of this year, the trend has changed, many young people have become seriously ill and have died from corona.
As reported by CNN, Thursday (25/3/2021), the doctors of the intensive care unit (ICU) in various parts of Brazil said the same thing. They are treating more young patients in the latest wave of coronavirus.
“We have healthy patients aged 30-50 years. That’s the profile of most patients,” said Dr Pedro Archer, an ICU doctor at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro. “That’s a big difference in this latest wave,” he said as reported by Detik.com.
CNN has spoken with nearly a dozen ICU doctors and nurses since mid-January at various hospitals in Brazil. Each of them said the ICU bed was filled with more young patients.
“The number of serious infection cases is much higher than the first wave,” said Dr Luan Matos de Menezes, an ICU doctor at a hospital in Manaus.
“You can see that their condition is much more critical,” he added.
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Elderly Mortality Declines
Brazil’s Ministry of Health released national statistical data on the age of corona patients. AFP’s analysis of the ministry’s data found that the number of people aged 30-59 accounted for about 27 percent of coronavirus deaths over the past three months. Or an increase of 7 percent from the figure before December last year.
The AFP analysis also found that the death toll for ages 60 and over decreased by 7 percent over the same time period.
Health authorities in Sao Paulo – Brazil’s most powerful state – said earlier this month that testimony from doctors in various regions about severe cases of coronavirus in younger people was supported by their data.
According to Sao Paulo’s health authorities, about 60 percent of young coronavirus patients need an ICU bed. That figure is higher than the start of the corona pandemic in Brazil.
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New Corona variant
The increase in severe cases and deaths among young people has coincided with the emergence of at least one new variant of the coronavirus in Brazil. The new variant, named P.1, which scientists say comes from Brazil, is widely agreed to be more contagious, even up to 2.2 times as much, according to a new study.
“It is possible that this new variant is more lethal, but we do not have scientific data to confirm that,” said Brazilian epidemiologist Jesem Orellana. “But what we do know is that the P.1 variant is more contagious and played a big role in this second wave,” he explained.
Experts also mentioned the increase in parties during the New Year and during the carnival holidays in the first half of this year. Young people participating in parties are likely to be more exposed these days. Videos of illegal gatherings are easy to find online and city authorities impose fines and break up illegal parties every weekend.
“You have more infectious viruses circulating. It will infect more people, including more young people. (The spike) It may just be the epidemiological effect of more people being infected at the same time,” said Brazilian microbiologist Natalia Pasternak.
And although vaccination in Brazil has been marked by delays, the program is moving slowly with priority on the elderly. The more elderly people who are vaccinated, experts believe that the more cases and the mortality rate, the more inclined towards young people.
Source: Detik.com
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