scholarly journals Covid-19: Why Peru suffers from one of the highest excess death rates in the world

BMJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. n611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Taylor
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bensu Karahalil ◽  
Aylin Elkama

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus. It is characterized by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It has quickly influenced all over the world since it spreads easily. Common symptoms are fever, cough, difficulty in breathing and muscle aches. Despite the urgent need to find an effective antiviral treatment, already available agents are being used alone or in combination all over the world. At the beginning of the pandemic, death rates of infection caused by COVID-19 are high but "is COVID-19 responsible for all deaths?", or “are there any contributions of the frequently used drugs in this period to these deaths?” Surely herd immunity plays a major role and has the contribution in the decline in mortality rates. Meanwhile, it is kept in mind that due to safety concerns, changes have also been made to the dosage and combined use of frequently used drugs. Objective: In this review, answers to two questions above and the safety of treatments, toxicities of agents involving chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, favipiravir, lopiravir/ritonavir, sarilumab, tocilizumab, siltuximab, corticosteroids and bromhexine which are the most frequently used in both Turkey and all over the world will be summarized. Conclusion: Among these drugs favipiravir seems the most promising drug due to more tolerable adverse effects. More clinical trials with large sample sizes are needed to find the most effective and safe drug for COVID-19 treatment.


1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 364-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Laugharne

When the Australian Governor General, Sir William Deane, referred in a speech in 1996 to the “appalling problems relating to Aboriginal health” he was not exaggerating. The Australia Bureau of Statistics report on The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (McLennan & Madden, 1997) outlines the following statistics. The life expectancy for Aboriginal Australians is 15 to 20 years lower than for non-Aboriginal Australians, and is lower than for most countries of the world with the exception of central Africa and India. Aboriginal babies are two to three times more likely to be of lower birth weight and two to four times more likely to die at birth than non-Aboriginal babies. Hospitalisation rates are two to three times higher for Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal Australians. Death rates from infectious diseases are 15 times higher among Aboriginal Australians than non-Aboriginal Australians. Rates for heart disease, diabetes, injury and respiratory diseases are also all higher among Aboriginals – and so the list goes on. It is fair to say that Aboriginal people have higher rates for almost every type of illness for which statistics are currently recorded.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Dahal ◽  
Ruiyan Luo ◽  
Monica H Swahn ◽  
Gerardo Chowell

Background: Mexico has suffered one of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world. In this study we examined how socio-demographic and population health characteristics shape the geospatial variability in excess mortality patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. Methods: Weekly all-cause mortality time series for all 32 Mexican states, from January 4, 2015 to April 10, 2021, were analyzed to estimate the excess mortality rates using Serfling regression models. The association between socio-demographic, health indicators and excess mortality rates were determined using multiple linear regression analyses. Finally, we used functional data analysis to characterize clusters of states with distinct mortality growth rate curves. Results: The overall all-cause excess deaths rate during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico until April 10, 2021 was estimated at 39.66 per 10 000 population. The lowest excess death rates were observed in southeastern states including Chiapas (12.72), Oaxaca (13.42) and Quintana Roo (19.41) whereas Mexico City had the highest excess death rate (106.17), followed by Tlaxcala (51.99) and Morelos (45.90). We found a positive association of excess mortality rates with aging index (P value<.0001), marginalization index (P value<.0001), and average household size (P value=0.0003) in the final adjusted model (Model R2=76%). We identified four distinct clusters with qualitatively similar excess mortality curves. Conclusion: Central states exhibited the highest excess mortality rates whereas the distribution of aging index, marginalization index, and average household size explained the variability in excess mortality rates across Mexico. Our findings can help tailor interventions to mitigate the mortality impact of the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Karin Modig ◽  
Anders Ahlbom ◽  
Marcus Ebeling

Abstract Background Sweden has one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 deaths per inhabitant globally. However, absolute death counts can be misleading. Estimating age- and sex-specific mortality rates is necessary in order to account for the underlying population structure. Furthermore, given the difficulty of assigning causes of death, excess all-cause mortality should be estimated to assess the overall burden of the pandemic. Methods By estimating weekly age- and sex-specific death rates during 2020 and during the preceding five years, our aim is to get more accurate estimates of the excess mortality attributed to COVID-19 in Sweden, and in the most affected region Stockholm. Results Eight weeks after Sweden’s first confirmed case, the death rates at all ages above 60 were higher than for previous years. Persons above age 80 were disproportionally more affected, and men suffered greater excess mortality than women in ages up to 75 years. At older ages, the excess mortality was similar for men and women, with up to 1.5 times higher death rates for Sweden and up to 3 times higher for Stockholm. Life expectancy at age 50 declined by less than 1 year for Sweden and 1.5 years for Stockholm compared to 2019. Conclusions The excess mortality has been high in older ages during the pandemic, but it remains to be answered if this is because of age itself being a prognostic factor or a proxy for comorbidity. Only monitoring deaths at a national level may hide the effect of the pandemic on the regional level.


Author(s):  
Azhar Muneer ◽  
Kiran Kumari ◽  
Manish Tripathi ◽  
Rupesh Srivastava ◽  
Asif Mohmmed ◽  
...  

In late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) infection started in Hubei province of China and now it has spread like a wildfire in almost all parts of the world except some. WHO named the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 as COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease-2019). It is very intriguing to see a mild trend of infection in some countries which could be attributed to mitigation efforts, lockdown strategies, health infrastructure, demographics and cultural habits. However, the lower rate of infection and death rates in mostly developing countries, which are not placed at higher levels in terms of healthcare facilities, is a very surprising observation. To address this issue, we hypothesize that this lower rate of infection is majorly been observed in countries which have a higher transmission/prevalence of protozoan parasite borne disease, malaria. We compared the COVID-19 spread and malaria endemicity of 108 countries which have shown at least 200 cases of COVID-19 till 18th April 2020. We found that the number of COVID-19 cases per million population correlates negatively with the malaria endemicity of respective countries. The malaria free countries not only have higher density of COVID-19 infections but also the higher case fatality rates as compared to highly malaria endemic countries. We also postulate that this phenomenon is due to natural immune response against malaria infection, which is providing a heterologous protection against the virus. Unfortunately, there is no licensed vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 yet, but this information will be helpful in design of future strategies against fast spreading COVID-19 disease.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Loeffler-Wirth ◽  
Maria Schmidt ◽  
Hans Binder

AbstractBackgroundCovid-19 pandemic is developing worldwide with common dynamics but also with partly marked differences between regions and countries. They are not completely understood, but presumably, provide one clue to find ways to mitigate epidemics until exit strategies to its eradication become available.MethodWe provide a monitoring tool available at www.izbi.de. It enables inspection of the dynamic state of the epidemic in 187 countries using trajectories. They visualize transmission and removal rates of the epidemic and this way bridge epi-curve tracking with modelling approaches.ResultsExamples were provided which characterize state of epidemic in different regions of the world in terms of fast and slow growing and decaying regimes and estimate associated rate factors. Basic spread of the disease associates with transmission between two individuals every two-three days on the average. Non-pharmaceutical interventions decrease this value to up to ten days where ‘complete lock down’ measures are required to stop the epidemic. Comparison of trajectories revealed marked differences between the countries regarding efficiency of measures taken against the epidemic. Trajectories also reveal marked country-specific dynamics of recovery and death rates.ConclusionsThe results presented refer to the pandemic state in May 2020 and can serve as ‘working instruction’ for timely monitoring using the interactive monitoring tool as a sort of ‘seismometer’ for the evaluation of the state of epidemic, e.g., the possible effect of measures taken in both, lock-down and lock-up directions. Comparison of trajectories between countries and regions will support developing hypotheses and models to better understand regional differences of dynamics of Covid-19.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
S. Sunitha

Demographics of India is remarkably diverse. India is the second most populous country in the world with more than one sixth of the world population. The stock of any population changes with time. There are three components of population changes which are fertility, mortality and migration. Socio economic phenomena of population development and their impact and differentials like urbanization, infant mortality rate, migration and causes of death are important to understand the population characteristics. It is observed that the growth of population depends on birth rate and death rates in India. During first phase birth rate as well as death rate was high. In the fourth phase birth rate and death rates are decline. It was also found that life expectancy at birth had been gradually increased in India. There is a need to coordinate the population policy with education policy. Employment generation programmes has been launched in the country to solve unemployment problem and mitigate rural unemployment.


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