The Higher Institute of Health updated the data – average age, previous pathologies, sex, most affected groups – on those who lost their lives in Italy, until March 12, and tested positive for Sars-cov-2

Coronavirus emergency data in Italy continues to grow. And to change. On Friday 13 March the president of the Higher Institute of Health, Silvio Brusaferro, provided an important update on the characteristics of the deceased and positive patients with Sars-cov-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19, the “coronavirus disease”: it is always good to remember that the virus, in itself, is not a disease, and that you can have it in your body without getting sick, but remaining contagious for others for a long time).

Compared to last March 5, when Brusaferro had provided the same picture, the situation in Italy became extremely more critical.

Back then, the number of recorded cases was 4,636, the recovered 414, the coronavirus-related deaths 148.

On Friday 13 March, the total cases had reached 17,660, the dead 250, the recovered 1439.

“The data on mortality are deepening with the medical records of the deceased,” said Brusaferro.

“Patients who have died with coronavirus have an average of over 80 years, 80.3, the peak of mortality is in the 80 to 89 age range. Lethality, ie the number of deaths among the sick, is higher among those over 80. The average age of the deceased is much higher than the other positive ones “.

This figure is in line with that of ten days ago: on March 5, the average age of the deceased was 81 years (slightly higher) and most of the deaths – 42.2% – had been registered in the age group between 80 and 89 years (32.4% of the deaths were between 70 and 79; 8.4% were between 60 and 69; 2.8% between 50 and 59 and 14.1% over 90 years), reported Corriere della Serra.

Women, said Brusaferro, are only 25.8% of the deceased. If you look at sick patients (not just the dead), 38% of the women are infected: this is in line with world statistics. One of the interpretations given is that men smoke more, and smokers are more susceptible to virus.

The majority of the victims, specified Brusaferro, had “multiple chronic diseases”.

“The most frequent categories have 2-3 or more pathologies, about 46-47% of the total deaths”.

On March 5, the ISS had specified that the most frequent previous pathology was hypertension, followed by ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus.

In many cases the virus intervened in organisms not strong enough to react adequately and was very probably a contributing cause of death. Epidemiological studies conducted so far explained that the risk of death increases with age (for those over 80 reach 14.8%) and due to pre-existing medical conditions, according to variable risk percentages (+ 10.5% for cardiac patients; + 7.3% for diabetics; + 6.3% for those suffering from chronic respiratory diseases; + 6% for those with hypertension; up to + 5.5% for those with cancer). The president of the Higher Institute of Health, Silvio Brusaferro, explained days ago that these data “confirm the observations made so far in the rest of the world, in particular on the fact that the elderly and people with pre-existing diseases are more at risk.