Mohali
30 March 2020
DIVYA AZAD
Cardiac patients must exercise extra caution during COVID19 pandemic, advised Dr Arun Kochhar, Senior Consultant, Cardiology, Fortis Hospital, Mohali. With the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared pandemic COVID19 patients reported in the tricity area, it is but important to remain alert and exercise as much as precautions possible. This deadly virus is more lethal against people who have co-morbidities like cardiac condition, high blood pressure or diabetes and a weak immunity system. Both these symptoms are commonly seen among the elderly section of the society. Amongst the patients who succumbed to this devastating illness, perhaps, the single most co-morbidity cause is heart disease.
In an advisory, Dr Arun Kochhar said, “There is a clear demographic distinctiveness of the disease and it is seen that children under the age of 10 years are seldom affected. In fact, less than 1 % of the total affected patients were children of less than 10 years’ age group.”
“The data from Italy and China has indicated that following subgroups have the highest chances of dying due to Covid- 19. These include patients who are 80 years of age with hypertension, patients with heart disease, diabetic patients, cancer patients and those with respiratory problems. The principal reason of death in patients with heart disease and other comorbidities has been abnormal exaggerated immune response to the infection. This leads to inflammatory damage to lungs and other organs,” Dr Kochhar added.
Many a time, elderly are already debilitated with the pre-existing illnesses such as arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. A lethal superadded infection such as Covid-19 sums up for a bad combination and culmination for them.
It is time that we humans can exercise certain social etiquettes like, not spitting in public, protecting our sneeze droplets to others, washing hands more often, social distancing and general hygiene would help in combating this major malady.
