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TRANSLATING TO ENGLISH FROM ITALIAN VIA GOOGLE TRANSLATE ( IT MIGHT SOUND AWKWARD AS THE TRANSLATION SOFTWARE ISN’T PERFECT, BUT YOU SHOULD GET THE MEANING )....
In relation to what was reported by various media about the data contained in the report on the characteristics of patients who died positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Italy published last October 19, and in order to promote their appropriate interpretation, it is considered useful to specify that:
The report does not state that only 2.9% of deaths attributed to Covid-19 are due to the virus. The percentage of 2.9%, also reported in previous editions, refers to the percentage of patients who died with positive SARS-CoV-2 who had no other pathologies diagnosed before the infection.
The figure is also confirmed by the observation made since the early stages of the pandemic and widely reported in various national and international studies and reports also by the ISS, that having pre-existing diseases (? Concomitants) is a risk factor.
The joint ISTAT-ISS reports drawn up on the basis of death certificates show that COVID-19 is the directly responsible cause of death in 89% of deaths of people who are positive for the SARS-CoV-2 test
Regardless of COVID 19, it is emphasized that the presence of chronic diseases in the elderly population is very common. A recent Istat report indicates that only 15% of the elderly population would not suffer from chronic diseases and that about 52% would suffer from 3 or more chronic diseases. In view of the fact that chronic diseases represent a risk factor for death from COVID-19 and that these are very common in the general population, it is not surprising the high frequency of these conditions in the SARS-CoV-2 positive deceased population.
It is also not correct to state that the pathologies found in the SARS-CoV-2 positive deceased would have led to death “in a short time”. The concomitance of multiple chronic pathologies in the same person constitutes in itself an element of fragility generally compensated for with appropriate therapies: contracting an infection such as SARS-CoV-2 translates into an increased risk of complications and death.
In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic, an excess of mortality in the population has been recorded, that is, a higher number of deaths than in previous years, the estimates of which are periodically reported in the joint ISS-ISTAT report. It should be noted that the pre-existing pathologies reported in the report, aimed at characterizing the characteristics of the deceased, are evaluated by a group of ISS doctors through the review of a sample of hospital medical records sent to ISS by the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, and the pre-existing diseases most frequently found in SARS-CoV-2 positive deceased are shown in table 1 of the report. The most represented are hypertension, type 2 diabetes and dementia, very frequent pathologies in the population.