In Italy, the death rate from heart attacks has almost tripled: Because of the fear of corona, they do not go to hospitals

In Italy, since the beginning of the quarantine due to Covid-19, mortality from acute heart attacks has almost tripled, and interventions to save heart attack patients have decreased by 40%, as people avoid hospitals for fear of contracting the coronavirus.

If this trend continues, there will be more deaths from heart attacks than those directly related to the pandemic, according to a study based on the clinical experience of the Cardiology Center "Monzino" in Milan.

These findings are confirmed by similar international analyzes and data.

"Since the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic, patients have been arriving at the hospital in an increasingly serious condition, often already with arrhythmic or functional complications, which makes the therapy much less effective, such as primary coronary angioplasty, which in previous years proved to be successful in saving lives in the event of a heart attack," he comments. head of the intensive care cardiology department, Giancarlo Marenzi.

The reason is very clear in all the countries most affected by the pandemic, the virus, which does not seem to have a primary role in heart attacks, makes people delay going to the hospital for fear of infection.

Unfortunately, this delay is harmful and often fatal because it prevents timely treatment, since time is a crucial factor in a heart attack, doctors warn.

The experience of Italian cardiologists is also confirmed by the first analyzes from the USA. In New York, for example, from March 30 to April 5 this year, there were 1.999 emergency calls due to cardiac arrest, which is four times more than in the same period last year, and the death rate from heart attacks increased 8 times.

At the hospital in Bari, an oncology patient was first successfully cured of the coronavirus, and then underwent cancer surgery. The patient is feeling well and in both cases the treatment was good, the hospital announced.

This news put in the center of attention the fact that in the prevention centers for breast cancer, the second most lethal among cancerous diseases, the number of diagnoses decreased worryingly, even by 40 to 50 percent.

This information was announced by the organization "Senonetwork", which unites 130 centers for the fight against breast cancer in Italy.

About 90% of the centers are located in a hospital that also treats patients with coronavirus infections, and the fear of contracting the coronavirus could be one of the explanations.

Doctors warn that due to diagnostic and therapeutic delay, there is a risk that severe consequences will appear in the near future on the stage of the disease, and therefore on the possibility of a cure for thousands of women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.