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The first death in Europe as a result of COVID-19 has been confirmed, as an eighty year old Chinese national from the Hubei province.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, University of Exeter Medical School, said:
“Every death is tragic and we know that older people and those with pre-existing health conditions are more vulnerable to COVID-19. Investigating deaths as well as their clinical management and pooling experiences from clinical, as well as pathological and clinical sample findings may help us learn more about the pathology, physiology and behaviours of the virus. This will eventually enable us to work out the best and most successful treatment options, as well as the use of as yet untried and tested medications and interventions.
“Overall, the risk of infection in the UK remains low, because of our current successful containment strategies, however, in the long term with the increasing number of cases, we need to continue to review our strategy to contain, delay and buy time.”
Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton, said:
“The death is in an 80 year old man. Care of the elderly is an important issue for so many reasons, partly because of conditions such as dementia. However there are also over 1 million* deaths in the elderly every year due to pneumonia. Any infection that causes severe respiratory tract infections in vulnerable populations is a concern, whether it be flu, bacterial pneumonia or in this case here, coronavirus.”
Prof Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology, University of Nottingham, said:
“It’s very difficult to put exact numbers of serious disease or death because we don’t have an accurate number for those infected. The true number of infections will be significantly greater than those reported, which will put the death toll a lot lower. It’s anyone’s guess what the true case number is. But irrespective of this, the virus clearly causes serious disease. Control measures, especially in China and I suspect many parts of the world, aren’t working. So this is a real threat and health systems have to prepare for the possibility of major spread. We need to be prepared.”
Dr Andrew Freedman, Reader in Infectious Diseases and Honorary Consultant Physician, Cardiff University School of Medicine, said:
“This first reported death in Europe from COVID-19 in an 80 year old man comes as no surprise. Although the mortality rate is low – probably less than 2%, we know that the risk of severe disease and death is greatest in the elderly as well as those with underlying co-morbidities such as diabetes and chronic respiratory disease. It is still the case that the vast majority of infections are relatively mild with full recovery”
Dr Robin Thompson, Junior Research Fellow in Mathematical Epidemiology, University of Oxford, said:
“Given that we have now seen 46 coronavirus cases in total in Europe, it is unsurprising that we have seen our first death. The most important thing to point out, however, is that there still hasn’t been sustained person-to-person transmission in Europe. As a result, the risk to individuals in the UK remains low.
Notes to editors
Coronavirus: First death confirmed in Europe
*1 million number is quoted from here – https://stoppneumonia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/The-Missing-Piece_-0611_Spread.pdf
Declared interests
None received.