Push Admin

Brazil now has more young than old COVID-19 patients in ICUs

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/04/11/health-coronavirus-brazil.jpg"/><figcaption>Health workers light their phones, as a 62-year-old man is discharged after surviving COVID-19 at Parelheiros Municipal Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, April 8, 2021. <em>Amanda Perobelli, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>The number of COVID-19 patients under 40 in intensive care in Brazil surpassed older groups last month, a researcher said Sunday, amid a deadly surge driven partly by a new coronavirus variant.</p><p>The number of people aged 39 or younger in intensive care units with COVID-19 in March rose sharply to more than 11,000, or 52.2 percent of the total, said the Brazilian ICU Project.</p><p>That was up from 14.6 percent of total ICU patients early in the pandemic and around 45 percent from September through February.</p><p>&quot;Previously, this was a population that would typically only develop a less-severe form of the disease and would not need intensive care. So the increase for this age group is very significant,&quot; said Dr. Ederlon Rezende, co-coordinator of the project, an initiative of the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine (AMIB).</p><p>He said various factors could be driving the increase.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/04/09/21/brazil-sets-new-daily-covid-19-death-record-as-hospital-supplies-run-low">Brazil sets new daily COVID-19 death record, as hospital supplies run low</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/philippines-receives-addl-500000-doses-of-sinovacs-covid-19-vaccine">Philippines receives add’l 500,000 doses of Sinovac&#x27;s COVID-19 vaccine</a></li></ul><p>Patients over 80, who fell from 13.6 percent to 7.8 percent of the total in Brazil&#x27;s ICUs in March, are now largely vaccinated.</p><p>Young people are also more likely to expose themselves to the virus, whether because they have to leave home to work or believe they are less vulnerable, he said.</p><p>Another factor may be the new Brazilian variant, known as P1, which experts say is partly responsible for the country&#x27;s COVID-19 death toll exploding in March.</p><p>The numbers suggest that P1, which can re-infect people who have had the original strain of the virus, may also be more virulent, Rezende said.</p><p>&quot;The patients arriving in ICUs now are younger, have no pre-existing conditions and are developing more severe cases of the virus, too,&quot; he told AFP.</p><p>The number of ICU patients without pre-existing conditions increased by nearly a third in March, to 30.3 percent of the total.</p><p>And the proportion of patients put on ventilators reached a pandemic record of 58.1 percent in March, according to the project&#x27;s data.</p><p>Brazil registered more than 66,500 COVID-19 deaths in March, more than double the hard-hit country&#x27;s previous monthly record in July 2020.</p><p>The disease has claimed a total of 351,000 lives in the country of 212 million people, a death toll second only to that of the United States.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/ph-logs-11681-new-covid-19-cases-total-nears-865000-mark">PH logs 11,681 new COVID-19 cases; total nears 865,000 mark</a></li></ul><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1658898" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>The number of people aged 39 or younger in intensive care units with COVID-19 in March rose sharply to more than 11,000.</p>

The number of people aged 39 or younger in intensive care units with COVID-19 in March rose sharply to more than 11,000.