Coronavirus: How patients with underlying health problems are most vulnerable

Scientists have crunched coronavirus statistics to reveal the fatality rate for infected patients with underlying health problems. Data shows patients with pre-existing conditions are more likely to suffer severe illness and die because their immune systems are weaker. Researchers in China, who studied more than 72,000 patients, found 10.5 per cent of heart disease sufferers […]

Scientists have crunched coronavirus statistics to reveal the fatality rate for infected patients with underlying health problems.

Data shows patients with pre-existing conditions are more likely to suffer severe illness and die because their immune systems are weaker.

Researchers in China, who studied more than 72,000 patients, found 10.5 per cent of heart disease sufferers who became ill with COVID-19 died.

The fatality rate was 7.3 per cent for diabetics and 6.3 per cent among people with chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma.

The World Health Organization has recently advised vulnerable people to be extra vigilant and avoid crowded areas, or anywhere they could come into contact with sick people.

The killer virus sweeping the globe can infect anybody, but those with more severe illness and those who ultimately die tend to be elderly or suffer from another underlying illness.

Doctors and families have also reported deaths in people who were seemingly completely healthy before being infected.

Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention researchers looked at 72,314 confirmed, suspected, clinically diagnosed, and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 illness across China as of February 11.

Results showed the overall case-fatality ratio – the percentage of patients who die – was just 2.3 per cent.

But this jumps higher in those with underlying conditions and the elderly, according to the findings in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology.

Those with heart disease fared worse – one in ten people studied died. This was followed by diabetics, who had a 7.3 per cent fatality rate (one in 13.6 people).

Of those with chronic respiratory illnesses, one in 15.8 people died. Six per cent of people with high blood pressure (one in 16.6 people) died.

The group with any form of cancer had a mortality rate of 5.6 per cent.

Although COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that primarily affects the lungs, the body comes under enormous stress while trying to fight back.

Those who have underlying conditions ‘have less of a “safety net” to cope with the demands’, Professor Naveed Sattar, an honorary consultant in cardiovascular and medical sciences, explained.