Coronavirus among the Elderly

Coronavirus among the Elderly

The elderly are at the risk of contracting coronavirus. It means that they will be isolated to the countryside far from their families. The retirees will be safer in the countryside since they are vulnerable to contracting the fate illness. Older adults have other underlying medical conditions and this is the primary reason they are at significant risk of contracting coronavirus.

Coronavirus has a great connection with the viral age and since the older adults lack a strong immune system, this makes them vulnerable to contracting the disease. They are likely to have conditions such as diabetes, lung disease, kidney disease, and heart disease that weakens the ability of their body to fight infectious disease (Garg et al., 2016). In most countries, the elderly are likely to be institutionalized in settings such as nursing or retirement homes or living with their families in crowded situations and this places them at high risk of infection (Yip et al., 2016). The elderly might have isolation or mobility challenges and because they are isolated, they may lack information regarding what they are supposed to do (Burgio, Gaugler, & Hilgeman, 2016).  Also, getting food in the stores can become more difficult and in most communities, the seniors are likely to live in poverty that makes it complicated for them to take care of themselves like they are supposed to. Poverty presents a considerable risk because it poses huge health problems to the elderly.

Conclusion

A side effect of the coronavirus impact on the health system is that the elderly will likely die of other illnesses. The elderly are hospitalized daily and they are not going to get the kind of care that they deserve during this outbreak. Elderly who are dying of heart attacks have COVID-19. Therefore, patients die of coronavirus without pneumonia because it affects the entire respiratory system.

References

Burgio, L. D., Gaugler, J. E., & Hilgeman, M. M. (Eds.). (2016). The Spectrum of Family Caregiving for Adults and Elders with Chronic Illness. Oxford University Press.

Garg, R., Shen, C., Sambamoorthi, N., Kelly, K., & Sambamoorthi, U. (2016). Type of Multimorbidity and Patient-Doctor Communication and Trust among Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries. International Journal of Family Medicine, 2016.

Yip, C. C., Lam, C. S., Luk, H. K., Wong, E. Y., Lee, R. A., So, L. Y., … & Lau, S. K. (2016). A Six-Year Descriptive Epidemiological Study of Human Coronavirus Infections in Hospitalized Patients in Hong Kong. Virologica Sinica, 31(1), 41-48.