It is well-known that people with chronic health conditions/comorbidities/underlying health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension are more prone to getting infected with COVID-19. This happens because the immune system of people with chronic health problems is already weakened due to their condition. So it is important for people any chronic health problems to call their doctors if they have new or unusual symptoms of coronavirus or are in contact with a COVID-19 diagnosed person.
Old Age is also one of the risk factors of the coronavirus according to The New York Times report. The second highest risk factor is obesity in younger and older adults. The report said that obesity can cause severe cases of COVID-19. COVID-19 is a respiratory disorder and those with obesity appear to have reduced activity in the lung. Obesity also induces inflammation within the body, which appears to lead to worse COVID-19 reactions. Also, patients under 60 years old with body mass index (BMI) between 30 and 34 were double likely to be hospitalized with serious cases of COVID-19, and 1.8 times more common to need treatment in the intensive care unit.
Another study points to the problem that people admitted in hospitals of New York City with severe cases of COVID-19 are bearing Kidney Damage. Doctors are worried that this is putting a lot of pressure on dialysis machines and equipment used to treat kidney damage. Health professionals say there is a need for a nationwide initiative to support New York City to address this growing health crisis and to educate smaller hospitals around the country.
While many already had chronic health conditions, a few of them developed these while getting treated for COVID-19. Many experts also confirm that fever isn’t a reliable sign for infection of COVID-19. Other known coronavirus symptoms include cough, headache, breathing problems, severe fatigue, and loss of smell and taste. But those symptoms differ from person to person. And it’s unclear if certain symptoms could serve as warning signs that a person might end up with severe illness in the hospital.
While most of the patients getting infected with COVID-19 severely in Northwell Health System (the largest number of COVID-19 cases in New York City which has the highest number of cases in the world) are old – more than 60 years old, among that 94% of them had at least one chronic health condition. Hypertension (affecting about 53 percent of all patients with COVID-19), obesity (affecting about 42 percent of patients with BMI data), and diabetes (affecting about 32 percent of all patients) were the most common.
Karina Davidson, one of the study’s authors and senior vice president for the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, which is part of the Northwell Health system says,” Having serious comorbidities increases your risk. This is a very serious disease with a very poor outcome for those who have severe infections from it. We want patients with serious chronic disease to take a special precaution and to seek medical attention early, should they start showing signs and symptoms of being infected. That includes knowing that they’ve been exposed to someone who has this virus.”
