Mortality rates among people who end up in intensive care with Covid-19 have improved dramatically since the onset of the pandemic due to advances in treatment, a new study has found.
The proportion of the worst affected by the disease dying from it has fallen from 60% when it first appeared last year to 36% by October, a global trends study shows.
That fall follows a positive trend that saw near-60% mortality seen at the end of March drop to 42% at the end of May, he reports.
The findings, based on 52 studies worldwide involving 43,128 patients, were published in the medical journal Anesthesia.
The five authors, all NHS specialists in intensive care or anesthetics, were led by Dr Tim Cook, a well-respected emergency care authority based at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.
However, the doctors who made the research warning could be that the significant improvement seen in Covid ‘s mortality over the past year may have reached a plateau.
New variants of coronavirus may have left more people seriously ill with death rates, they say. Similarly, the worldwide open immunization program could reduce the number of potentially life-saving treatments required in intensive care.
Here, their second meta-analysis of global trends in the number of deaths despite emergency care, states: “Overall, mortality in all studies is lower to the end of the year. September (35.5%) than when we reported this until the end of September. May (41.6%). ”
The improvement is due to the increased use of steroids such as dexamethasone and changes in the way Covid patients receive oxygen therapy and fluids and how the risk of blood clots is regulated.
However, they say: “The reduction in ICU mortality from Covid-19 has slowed or decreased since May 2020.”
Mortality in most regions of the world is now 30% -40%, they found. For example, the average in Europe is 33.4% and in North America 40%. However, mortality in the Victorian state of Australia, which includes Melbourne, is surprisingly low at 11%. And it’s surprisingly high, at 62%, in the Middle East, based on a study of four countries there.
The data they studied included figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland collected and published weekly of the pandemic by the National Intensive Care Research Center (ICNARC). His latest report, published last Friday, shows that mortality was around 45% when the pandemic struck but now just under 40%.
Dr James Doidge, ICNARC chief statistician, said: “Mortality rates have been monitored [in the three countries] at its lowest level during the summer of 2020, [when they were] 27% of patients entered emergency care in June or July.
“While mortality rates have risen again in recent months, these are lower than would be expected based on the characteristics of admitted patients. For example, 38% for patients [who were] badly in December against 43% -46% as expected. ”