AIIMS study shows COVID-19 killed more people under age of 50

New Delhi, June 29: COVID-19 has claimed lives of more people under the age of 50 as compared to those above 65 years, a new study conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has shown.

The study was authored by AIIMS director, Dr. Randeep Guleria, chief of the AIIMS trauma center Dr. Rakesh Malhotra among others. The assessment was published in the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine and dealt with the deaths of COVID-19 adult patients between the period of April 4 and July 24 last year.

During the study period 654 adult patients were admitted to ICU. Out of this 247 died recording a mortality rate of around 37.7 per cent. The adult patients were further divided into several age groups-18-50, 50-65 and 65 and above. The study showed that 42.1 per cent of the deaths were from the age group of 18-50. In the case of 51-65 it was 43.8 per cent and 23.1 per cent in the above 65 category.

The common aspects in these patients was diabetes, chronic kidney diseases and hypertension. They also suffered from fever cough and shortness of breath. Dr. Guleria has said that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic. He also said that vaccination for children would be a milestone as this will pave the way for the reopening of schools.