COVID-19 and geriatric population: from pathophysiology to clinical perspectives
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Swanjal Bansod
,
Ashok Kumar Ahirwar
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only led to a worldwide socio-economic depression, but has also had the highest health impact on the geriatric population. Elderly population, due to various reasons such as low immunity, pre-existing co-morbidities such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, are obviously predisposed to develop severe infections and exhibit a high mortality rate. This is because of many reasons which include the atypical presentation in the geriatric population which might have led to diagnostic delay. As per the WHO guidelines to perform RT-PCR only on the symptomatic individuals, a very small portion of individuals were tested, leaving a fraction of population undiagnosed. Therefore, there remained a chance that many asymptomatic individuals such caregivers, healthcare professionals, family members were undiagnosed and might have carried this virus to the geriatric patients. Also, many countries were not prepared to handle the burden on their healthcare system which included sudden increased demand of ICU beds, mechanical ventilation etc. As a result, they had to make decision on who to be admitted. Atypical presentation in geriatric population may include afebrile or low-grade fever, absence of cough, malaise, muscle pains, dyspnoea etc. Geriatric population shows a more severe type of pneumonia, significantly higher number of neutrophils and C-reactive protein, less lymphocytes and a higher proportion of multiple lobe involvement. Extreme social suppression during COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risk of mental and physical adverse effects that has made older adults more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Research funding: None declared.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Informed consent: Not applicable.
Ethical approval: Not applicable.
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Letter to the Editor
- Kerala model for combating COVID-19 pandemic
- Original Articles
- Evaluation of the potential anticancer activity of different vitamin D metabolites on colorectal and breast cancer cell lines
- Relationship between the levels of serum fibroblast growth factor 19 and metabolic factors in obese and normal weight subjects with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus: a case-control study
- Early-life stress altered pancreatic Krebs cycle-related enzyme activities in response to young adulthood physical and psychological stress in male rat offspring
- Effect of short-term and long-term traffic noise exposure on the thyroid gland in adult rats: a sexual dimorphic study
- The effect of thyroid dysfunction and treatment on adropin, asprosin and preptin levels in rats
- Comparison of the effects of zinc oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles on the expression of hepcidin gene in rat liver
- Comparison between Iberet Folic® and Zincofer® in treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in pregnancy
- Mini Review
- COVID-19 and pregnancy: are they friends or enemies?
- Review Articles
- COVID-19: a review on SARS-CoV-2 origin, epidemiology, virology, clinical manifestations and complications with special emphasis on adverse outcome in Bhopal Gas Tragedy survivor
- COVID-19 and neurology perspective
- COVID-19 and nutritional deficiency: a review of existing knowledge
- COVID-19 and geriatric population: from pathophysiology to clinical perspectives
- COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease: a review of current knowledge
- How do different histologic components of mixed endometrial carcinomas affect prognosis? Does it really matter?
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Letter to the Editor
- Kerala model for combating COVID-19 pandemic
- Original Articles
- Evaluation of the potential anticancer activity of different vitamin D metabolites on colorectal and breast cancer cell lines
- Relationship between the levels of serum fibroblast growth factor 19 and metabolic factors in obese and normal weight subjects with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus: a case-control study
- Early-life stress altered pancreatic Krebs cycle-related enzyme activities in response to young adulthood physical and psychological stress in male rat offspring
- Effect of short-term and long-term traffic noise exposure on the thyroid gland in adult rats: a sexual dimorphic study
- The effect of thyroid dysfunction and treatment on adropin, asprosin and preptin levels in rats
- Comparison of the effects of zinc oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles on the expression of hepcidin gene in rat liver
- Comparison between Iberet Folic® and Zincofer® in treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in pregnancy
- Mini Review
- COVID-19 and pregnancy: are they friends or enemies?
- Review Articles
- COVID-19: a review on SARS-CoV-2 origin, epidemiology, virology, clinical manifestations and complications with special emphasis on adverse outcome in Bhopal Gas Tragedy survivor
- COVID-19 and neurology perspective
- COVID-19 and nutritional deficiency: a review of existing knowledge
- COVID-19 and geriatric population: from pathophysiology to clinical perspectives
- COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease: a review of current knowledge
- How do different histologic components of mixed endometrial carcinomas affect prognosis? Does it really matter?
