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Chronic sickness makes Portuguese vulnerable to bird flu, viruses
Chronic sickness makes Portuguese vulnerable to bird flu, viruses
LISBON (AFP) - A new study has shown Portugal to have a higher number of chronically ill people than previously thought, making the nation more vulnerable to viruses like bird flu, a health department official said.
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"When it comes to chronic disease, the population is sicker than we thought," researcher Baltazar Nunes of the National Health Institute told state radio RDP.
According to the new data, 60 percent of people aged 65 or older have some form of chronic illness, Nunes said. Among those between 19 and 64 the rate is over 25 percent, mostly due to heart, lung or kidney ailments, he added.
The National Health Institute, which is part of the health ministry, had previously believed that roughly 40 percent of those aged 65 or older, and 14 percent of those between 19 and 64, were chronically ill.
The earlier assumption was based on US data extrapolated for Portugal while the new data was based on the results of a survey of 300,000 people in central Portugal, which were then extrapolated to get a figure for the entire country, Nunes said.
The fact that chronic illnesses were shown to be more prevalent in the people surveyed had also led the health department to increase its estimates for potential deaths from bird flu.
"In terms of deaths (from bird flu) we go from 400 (people in central Portugal) to between 600 and 700," said Nunes, who coordinated the survey.
Based on these figures, the health department had raised its estimated nationwide death toll from a bird flu pandemic to 19,000 people from 12,000, he told the radio station, pointing out these was a worst-case scenario.
So far, no cases of the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus have been detected in either animals or humans in Portugal, a nation of just over 10 million people.
The virus has killed more than 100 people since it re-emerged in 2003 in Asia, all of them falling sick after contact with infected birds, according to the World Health Organisation.
Scientists say millions of people worldwide could die if the strain mutates into a disease that can spread easily between people.
LISBON (AFP) - A new study has shown Portugal to have a higher number of chronically ill people than previously thought, making the nation more vulnerable to viruses like bird flu, a health department official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"When it comes to chronic disease, the population is sicker than we thought," researcher Baltazar Nunes of the National Health Institute told state radio RDP.
According to the new data, 60 percent of people aged 65 or older have some form of chronic illness, Nunes said. Among those between 19 and 64 the rate is over 25 percent, mostly due to heart, lung or kidney ailments, he added.
The National Health Institute, which is part of the health ministry, had previously believed that roughly 40 percent of those aged 65 or older, and 14 percent of those between 19 and 64, were chronically ill.
The earlier assumption was based on US data extrapolated for Portugal while the new data was based on the results of a survey of 300,000 people in central Portugal, which were then extrapolated to get a figure for the entire country, Nunes said.
The fact that chronic illnesses were shown to be more prevalent in the people surveyed had also led the health department to increase its estimates for potential deaths from bird flu.
"In terms of deaths (from bird flu) we go from 400 (people in central Portugal) to between 600 and 700," said Nunes, who coordinated the survey.
Based on these figures, the health department had raised its estimated nationwide death toll from a bird flu pandemic to 19,000 people from 12,000, he told the radio station, pointing out these was a worst-case scenario.
So far, no cases of the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus have been detected in either animals or humans in Portugal, a nation of just over 10 million people.
The virus has killed more than 100 people since it re-emerged in 2003 in Asia, all of them falling sick after contact with infected birds, according to the World Health Organisation.
Scientists say millions of people worldwide could die if the strain mutates into a disease that can spread easily between people.
