C
Chris Smith
Guest
- Doctors in Boston think they found another potential predictor that is associated with a higher risk of severe cases or even death from COVID-19 complications.
- Researchers have observed that COVID-19 patients who have higher RDW counts are at increased risk of death compared with patients who do not show elevated values.
- RDW is a standard component of routine blood tests, so it would be an accessible predictor of severe coronavirus cases if these findings are confirmed.
The novel coronavirus pandemic will cross a grim milestone by the time the weekend is over: 1 million people will have died of COVID-19 complications worldwide, more than one-fifth of which in the US alone. That’s out of about 7.5 million cases in the US and almost 33 million confirmed cases worldwide. The real number of people who contracted the illness since late December is significantly larger than that. Plenty of people survived the coronavirus without having been tested, just as some have likely died of COVID-19 without being diagnosed. In other words, the fatality rate (deaths out of total confirmed cases) hovers around 3%, and the real fatality rate (deaths out of all COVID-19 cases) is probably lower than that. That’s both good and bad news. Most people who are infected will survive, although “Long COVID” and MIS-C are secondary coronavirus worries affecting some patients and even children. But because the infection rate remains high and the virus spreads faster and more efficiently than other pathogens, the death toll is still significant.
There’s currently no treatment that can prevent deaths, although several drugs including remdesivir, dexamethasone, and blood thinners can help reduce complications. Several others are in testing, including monoclonal antibody drugs that might cure COVID-19 and even help prevent infections. Also, the goal of vaccination campaigns isn’t just to prevent infections, but also to reduce the severity of COVID-19 if infection occurs. Aside from finding a treatment that can prevent most deaths, doctors are also looking at early warning systems that might indicate which COVID-19 patients are more likely to develop severe complications. And a team of doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital thinks that a routine blood test can predict COVID-19 mortality.
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This simple test might predict how serious your coronavirus case will be originally appeared on BGR.com on Sun, 27 Sep 2020 at 12:35:07 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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