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Physician deaths from corona virus (COVID-19) disease
1Ophthalmology, University of Toronto, 650 Sammon Avenue, K306, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Insights
Front-line physicians, particularly general practitioners and emergency room doctors, faced significant mortality from COVID-19. Lack of personal protective equipment was a key factor, suggesting older physicians may need exclusion from high-risk duties.
Area of Science:
- Medical Science
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in substantial morbidity and mortality among patients and healthcare providers globally.
- Physician deaths during the pandemic highlight the risks faced by front-line medical professionals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To tabulate and analyze cases of physician deaths associated with COVID-19.
- To identify patterns in physician mortality to mitigate future events.
Main Methods:
- A Google search was conducted using keywords related to physician deaths and COVID-19 in multiple languages.
- Data on age, sex, and medical specialty of deceased physicians were collected and analyzed.
- Physicians over 90 years of age were excluded from the analysis.
Main Results:
- 278 physician deaths from COVID-19 were identified, with complete data available for 170.
- The average age of deceased physicians was 63.7 years, with 90% being male.
- General practitioners and emergency room doctors constituted the largest proportion of deaths, followed by internal medicine and anesthesiology specialists. Italy and Iran reported the highest numbers of physician deaths.
Conclusions:
- Physicians across all specialties are vulnerable to COVID-19 mortality.
- Inadequate personal protective equipment was frequently cited as a cause of death.
- Excluding older physicians from front-line duties may be a necessary consideration to reduce mortality.
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.
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