The health conditions of a number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam are worsening, with high risk of fatality, local media quoted Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the Ministry of Health’s Medical Examination and Treatment Department, as saying.

Currently, patients with severe prognosis and high risk of fatality include patients N0.416, 418, 431, 436, 437, 438. Besides, some patients’ health conditions have worsened such as patients N0.429, 426, 427, 430, 422, 433. Most of them are elderly people with many pre-existing diseases.

Dr. Nguyen Truong Son, deputy minister of Health, presides over the consultation for critically ill patients on July 30. Photo: Quynh Trang

“We find that Covid-19 patients in this phase are getting worse faster than the ones in the first phase. For Covid-19 patients with pre-existing diseases, their health conditions are deteriorating,” Khue said.

Talking to media on July 31, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said that when infected with Covid-19, people at high risk of aggravation are the elderly (over 60 years old) with existing diseases, obesity or exhaustion.

Son said that this group of people with Covid-19 will see their immunity weaken, enabling the virus to grow in the body and damage their organs faster than younger patients.

“I noted the risk of a cytokine storm syndrome. In some people, when infected by viruses, their body's immune system will be activated. This system will attack viruses and internal organs at the same time, causing these organs to fail and impair function and leading to a more serious condition, like what happened to the British pilot Covid-19 patient (Patient 91 in Vietnam) in the previous phase,” Son said.

During this period, the number of patients experiencing " the cytokine storm" has not been counted. In fact, some patients show signs of organ failure though they did not show life-threatening symptoms.

Currently, some Covid-19 patients with underlying chronic diseases in Vietnam must use respiratory support measures such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), mechanical ventilation or oxygen.

An expert in geriatrics said that the elder's resistance often decreases compared to other age groups. If they have underlying diseases, the SARS-CoV-2 virus will cause chronic disease to exacerbation. Therefore, patients are likely to die.

In fact, in countries with numerous cases, Covid-19 patients who died are mostly the elderly, with many chronic diseases.