That is one of the findings of a local population cohort study probing risk factors for COVID-19 deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A professional healthcare worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) treats a patient in a tent dedicated to the treatment of possible COVID-19 coronavirus patients, while another cleans the ward at the Tshwane District Hospital in Pretoria on 10 July 2020. Picture: AFP
CAPE TOWN – Men have a higher risk of dying from the novel coronavirus.
That is one of the findings of a local population cohort study probing risk factors for COVID-19 deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The study – involving the University of Cape Town (UCT), Stellenbosch University, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), and the Department of Health – used the data of adult patients in public health facilities in the Western Cape.
Males, older persons, diabetics and those with hypertension were confirmed as categories most at risk of dying from COVID-19.
Dr Kerrin Begg, a public health specialist at UCT’s Health Sciences Faculty, explained how they derived the data.
“There’s about three and a half million patients that are on the current database. Of those 20,308 were diagnosed with COVID-19 and of those 625 died. We were evaluating those deaths and seeing what the risk factors were,” Begg said.
She added: “Of those who were diagnosed and of those who died, the male sex was more frequently associated with death than the female sex, that Increasing age was more associated with death too, particularly the groups over 55, diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease were all associated with death.”
Begg warned that these groups needed to take extra care to prevent contracting the disease.
