Physician deaths from corona virus (COVID-19) disease

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Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much morbidity and mortality to patients but also health care providers.

Aims

We tabulated the cases of physician deaths from COVID-19 associated with front-line work in hopes of mitigating future events.

Methods

On 15 April 2020, a Google internet search was performed using the keywords ‘doctor’, ‘physician’, ‘death’, ‘COVID’ and ‘coronavirus’ in English and Farsi, and Chinese using the Baidu search engine. The age, sex and medical speciality of physicians who died from COVID-19 in the line of duty were recorded. Individuals greater than 90 years of age were excluded.

Results

We found 278 physicians who died with COVID-19 infection, but complete details were missing for 108 individuals. The average age of the physicians was 63.7 years with a median age of 66 years, and 90% were male (235/261). General practitioners and emergency room doctors (108/254), respirologists (5/254), internal medicine specialists (13/254) and anaesthesiologists (6/254) comprised 52% of those dying. Two per cent of the deceased were epidemiologists (5/254), 2% were infectious disease specialists (4/254), 6% were dentists (16/254), 4% were ENT (9/254) and 3% were ophthalmologists (8/254). The countries with the most reported physician deaths were Italy (121/278; 44%), Iran (43/278; 15%), Philippines (21/278; 8%), Indonesia (17/278; 6%), China (16/278; 6%), Spain (12/278; 4%), USA (12/278; 4%) and UK (11/278;4%).

Conclusions

Physicians from all specialities may die from COVID. Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a common cause of death. Consideration should be made to exclude older physicians from front-line work.

Related collections

Most cited references 4

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Covid-19: risk factors for severe disease and death

Rachel E Jordan, Peymané Adab, K K Cheng (2020)

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Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Emerging and Future Challenges for Dental and Oral Medicine

L Meng, F. Hua, Z. Bian (2020)

The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), originating in Wuhan, China, has become a major public health challenge for not only China but also countries around the world. The World Health Organization announced that the outbreaks of the novel coronavirus have constituted a public health emergency of international concern. As of February 26, 2020, COVID-19 has been recognized in 34 countries, with a total of 80,239 laboratory-confirmed cases and 2,700 deaths. Infection control measures are necessary to prevent the virus from further spreading and to help control the epidemic situation. Due to the characteristics of dental settings, the risk of cross infection can be high between patients and dental practitioners. For dental practices and hospitals in areas that are (potentially) affected with COVID-19, strict and effective infection control protocols are urgently needed. This article, based on our experience and relevant guidelines and research, introduces essential knowledge about COVID-19 and nosocomial infection in dental settings and provides recommended management protocols for dental practitioners and students in (potentially) affected areas.

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Death from Covid-19 of 23 Health Care Workers in China

Mingkun Zhan, Yaxun Qin, Xiang Xue … (2020)

To the Editor: The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China has reported that as of February 24, 2020, a total of 3387 of 77,262 patients with Covid-19 (4.4%) in China were health care workers or others who worked in medical facilities. 1,2 According to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, and public media, as of April 3, a total of 23 of the health care professionals among these 3387 persons had died from Covid-19 after they became infected during the practice of medicine in Wuhan and elsewhere in China. 3,4 The median age of the 23 health care workers who died was 55 years (range, 29 to 72); 17 were men and 6 were women. Eighteen of the health care workers were from Wuhan, 4 were from areas of Hubei Province outside Wuhan, and 1 was from Hainan Province (see Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org). Eleven of these persons had been rehired after retirement, and at least 5 were known to have had a chronic condition such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, or post-polio syndrome. Thirteen were physicians who provided direct patient care (5 practiced in community health centers or in private clinics, 3 practiced Chinese medicine, 2 were internal medicine physicians, 2 were physicians in respiratory medicine, and 1 was a gastroenterologist); 8 were surgeons (including 3 ophthalmologic surgeons); 1 was an electrocardiography technician; and 1 was a nurse. The median period from the onset of symptoms of Covid-19 to hospital admission in the 19 health care workers for whom these data were available was 6 days (range, 0 to 15). 3 Three of them died in late January, 17 died in February, and 3 died in early March. The median period from hospital admission to death in all 23 health care workers was 19 days (range, 1 to 47). In 16 of the health care workers, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) rapidly progressed, and their condition then deteriorated quickly; all but 3 of these persons were 50 years of age or older. After their condition deteriorated, 12 of the 23 health care workers were transferred from the hospitals where they were first admitted to specialized intensive care units in other hospitals or to hospitals that specialize in infectious diseases. In addition to ARDS, the complications of Covid-19 in these patients included cardiac injury, septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, hypercoagulability, intracardiac thrombus, and bacteremia. Only 2 of the 23 health care workers were physicians in respiratory medicine who had been specifically assigned to treat patients with Covid-19. None of the 23 patients who died were from hospital divisions of infectious diseases or worked in hospitals that specialized in infectious diseases. The infections in these patients may have resulted from inadequate precautions and insufficient protection in the early stages of the epidemic. As of March 31, none of the 42,600 health care workers who went to Hubei Province to care for patients with Covid-19 were known to have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). 5 The 42,600 workers included one of us, an intensive care physician from Fujian Province who cared for patients with Covid-19 from January 29 to March 23, first in Wuhan Central Hospital, and then in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. These data suggest that sufficient precautions with rigorous enforcement can prevent health care workers from becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent risk of death. The 23 health care heroes described here were dedicated to saving the lives of others in a catastrophic pandemic that has been plaguing our country and many others around the globe.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Occup Med (Lond)

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Occup Med (Lond)

Journal ID (publisher-id): occmed

Title: Occupational Medicine (Oxford, England)

Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK )

ISSN (Print): 0962-7480

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-8405

Publication date (Electronic): 15 May 2020

Electronic Location Identifier: kqaa088

Affiliations

[1 ] Ophthalmology, University of Toronto , 650 Sammon Avenue, K306, Toronto, ON, Canada

[2 ] Medical Student, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, BC, Canada

[3 ] Medical Student, McGill University , Montreal, QC, Canada

[4 ] Ophthalmology, Harvard Beth Israel Deaconess , Boston, MA, USA

Author notes

Correspondence to: E. B. Ing, Ophthalmology, University of Toronto, 650 Sammon Avenue, K306, Toronto, ON M4C 5M5, Canada. Tel: +1 416 465 7900; fax: +1 416 385 3880; e-mail: edinglidstrab@ 123456gmail.com

Article

Publisher ID: kqaa088

DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa088

PMC ID: 7239175

PubMed ID: 32409839

SO-VID: 6908d0b8-f097-458f-97f0-9bc7f4d52bc6

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