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Source: https://au.news.yahoo.com/brazil-covid-increasingly-hitting-young-014424239.html
Agence-France Presse
In Brazil, Covid increasingly hitting the young
Rodrigo ALMONACID
Fri, 19 March 2021, 9:44 pm?3-min read
Leading the morning medical meeting at an intensive care unit in Sao Paulo, Jaques Sztajnbok reviews his Covid-19 patients.
Two, aged 56 and 53, are on ventilators. A third is breathing on his own, but writhing in agony. He is 26 years old.
There are fewer wrinkles and less gray hair among patients in Brazil's intensive care units as the country reels from a surge in Covid-19 that is increasingly hitting people under 60.
"We're seeing a high prevalence of younger patients, with no pre-existing conditions, hospitalized with very severe cases," Sztajnbok, head of intensive care at Emilio Ribas Hospital, told AFP.
"The same trend is being reported at ICUs across Brazil."
In Brazil, like most of the world, severe cases and deaths from Covid-19 were mainly among the elderly during the first wave of the novel coronavirus last year.
Now, the country is dealing with a devastating resurgence of the virus, blamed partly on the emergence of a new strain known as "P1" or the "Brazil variant."
The recent surge has pushed hospitals across Brazil close to the breaking point, as the country's death toll has soared to 285,000 -- second only to the United States.
This time, the demographic profile of the victims is increasingly young.
Before the trend emerged last December, the 30- to 59-year-old age group represented 20 percent of Covid-19 deaths in Brazil.
In about three months, that figure increased to 27 percent, according to health ministry data.
Meanwhile, the share of the death toll for over-60s fell from 78 percent to 71 percent.
"Half the (Covid-19) patients hospitalized in our nursing wards are under 60," said Luiz Carlos Pereira Junior, the director of Emilio Ribas.
A year ago, at the start of the first wave in Brazil, that figure was 35 percent, he said...
Agence-France Presse
In Brazil, Covid increasingly hitting the young
Rodrigo ALMONACID
Fri, 19 March 2021, 9:44 pm?3-min read
Leading the morning medical meeting at an intensive care unit in Sao Paulo, Jaques Sztajnbok reviews his Covid-19 patients.
Two, aged 56 and 53, are on ventilators. A third is breathing on his own, but writhing in agony. He is 26 years old.
There are fewer wrinkles and less gray hair among patients in Brazil's intensive care units as the country reels from a surge in Covid-19 that is increasingly hitting people under 60.
"We're seeing a high prevalence of younger patients, with no pre-existing conditions, hospitalized with very severe cases," Sztajnbok, head of intensive care at Emilio Ribas Hospital, told AFP.
"The same trend is being reported at ICUs across Brazil."
In Brazil, like most of the world, severe cases and deaths from Covid-19 were mainly among the elderly during the first wave of the novel coronavirus last year.
Now, the country is dealing with a devastating resurgence of the virus, blamed partly on the emergence of a new strain known as "P1" or the "Brazil variant."
The recent surge has pushed hospitals across Brazil close to the breaking point, as the country's death toll has soared to 285,000 -- second only to the United States.
This time, the demographic profile of the victims is increasingly young.
Before the trend emerged last December, the 30- to 59-year-old age group represented 20 percent of Covid-19 deaths in Brazil.
In about three months, that figure increased to 27 percent, according to health ministry data.
Meanwhile, the share of the death toll for over-60s fell from 78 percent to 71 percent.
"Half the (Covid-19) patients hospitalized in our nursing wards are under 60," said Luiz Carlos Pereira Junior, the director of Emilio Ribas.
A year ago, at the start of the first wave in Brazil, that figure was 35 percent, he said...
