Nearly 1/3rd of Covid-19 victims in Karnataka had no comorbidities

BENGALURU: Nearly 31% Covid-19 patients who succumbed to the virus in Karnataka had no comorbidities, according to the state health and family welfare department.
As on June 24, the state lost 34,425 patients to Covid and 10,559 had no comorbidities such as hypertension, high blood pressure, renal disorders or any other health issue.

A majority of such cases were seen in Bengaluru where 4,299 dead persons had no comorbidities. The city saw 15,537 Covid deaths till June 24.

In Yadgir district, 74.7% of dead patients had no comorbidities. The district saw 206 deaths till June 24 and only 52 of the dead had comorbidities. Deaths in patients without comorbidities was 65.1% of the total Covid deaths in Kolar, followed by 59.7% in Chamarajanagar.
How second wave affected patients
Experts said some patients may have been unaware of their comorbidities which went unrecorded in medical documents. According to Dr MK Sudarshan, chairperson, Covid Technical Advisory Committee, data recording on comorbidities needs to be checked. “Quality of data is better in medical college hospitals,” said Dr Sudarshan, adding that long delays in hospitalisation led to death.
“Obesity is a major risk factor in Covid-19, but it has not been considered as a comorbidity in official medical records,” said another expert.
According to Dr Anoop Amarnath, member, state government’s Critical Support Group for Covid treatment, the data indicates the sad ground reality. “In the second wave, there were multiple cases of young patients without comorbidities being presented with heart attacks, stroke, gastrointestinal bleed. This is a clear sign of coagulation abnormality seen with Covid,” he said.
He said the contributing factor is dysglycemia (abnormalities in blood glucose levels). “Many young patients had high sugar levels. It was a double whammy as they needed steroids which, in turn, increases the sugar level,” he said.
In some patients, infections like Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, caused by a fungus Pneumocustis jiroveci, were seen. “This indicates potential immune suppression nature of Covid. All these factors must be studied further,” said Dr Amarnath.