Who’s at risk for COVID-19?

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

 

Experts and Iloilo City officials said carelessness in the face of the pandemic could lead to another breakout of the disease if residents lower their guard against COVID-19 as majority of infected persons are asymptomatic or don’t show symptoms.

It is easy for an asymptomatic patient to dismiss his or her condition and go about their normal lives while unwittingly spreading the virus and infect vulnerable persons.

Latest available scientific data indicate that COVID-19 is most severe or could even lead to deaths when the infected person has comorbidities or underlying medical conditions.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19 (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html).

Severe illness from COVID-19 is defined as hospitalization, admission to the ICU, intubation or mechanical ventilation, or death.

Adults of any age with the following conditions are at increased risk of severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19:

-Cancer

-Chronic kidney disease

-COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)

-Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies

-Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant

-Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 kg/m2 or higher but < 40 kg/m2)

-Severe Obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2)

-Pregnancy

-Sickle cell disease

-Smoking

-Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Since COVID-19 is a new disease, the CDC said there are limited data and information about the impact of many underlying medical conditions and whether they increase the risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Based on available data, adults of any age with the following conditions might be at an increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19:

-Asthma (moderate-to-severe)

-Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)

-Cystic fibrosis

-Hypertension or high blood pressure

-Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines

-Neurologic conditions, such as dementia

-Liver disease

-Overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2, but < 30 kg/m2)

-Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues)

-Thalassemia (a type of blood disorder)

-Type 1 diabetes mellitus

While children have been less affected by COVID-19 compared to adults, they can be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 and some children develop severe illness.

The CDC said children with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness compared to children without underlying medical conditions.

“Current evidence on which underlying medical conditions in children are associated with increased risk is limited. Children with the following conditions might be at increased risk for severe illness: obesity, medical complexity, severe genetic disorders, severe neurologic disorders, inherited metabolic disorders, sickle cell disease, congenital (since birth) heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, asthma and other chronic lung disease, and immunosuppression due to malignancy or immune-weakening medications,” it added.

The CDC is also trying to find out “who is at increased risk for developing the rare but serious complication associated with COVID-19 in children called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), nor do we know what causes MIS-C.”

 

‘FLATTEN THE CURVE’

If Ilonggos become complacent against COVID, it could put to waste efforts to flatten the infection curve.

Lately, Iloilo City has managed to lower new COVID cases from as high as more than 89 cases daily in October 2020 to low single digits this week

On Thursday, the Iloilo City COVID-19 team reported 16 new cases, putting the daily average from Nov 1-5 at 16 per day.

Most of the new cases were close contacts of previous cases and are currently being isolated to avoid possible transmissions.

Since Oct 1, 22 barangays in the city managed to be COVID-free.

A situationer report from the Iloilo City Covid-19 Emergency Operations Center (EOC) showed that as of Nov 5, Iloilo City accounted for 23% of the total number of COVID cases in Western Visayas which has a total of 17,350 cases.

So far, the city has 3,966 total confirmed cases, some 94 percent of them have already recovered.

The 172 active cases account for 4 percent of the total tally while the 83 deaths accounted for 2 percent.

Updated data from the EOC also showed a downward trend in cases in the seven districts in the past three weeks.

LaPaz district managed to suppress infections from 33 (Oct 16-22) to 10 cases (Oct 30-Nov 5), Jaro from 97 (Oct 16-22) to 30 cases (Oct 30-Nov 5), Molo from 61 cases (Oct 23-29) to 20 (Oct 30-Nov 5), Mandurriao from 36 (Oct 23-29) to 13 cases (Oct 30-Nov 5), Arevalo from 24 cases to 18, Lapuz from 46 to 14 cases, and City Proper from 29 to 9 cases.