Significant numbers of patients in the UMCG’s Intensive Care department are overweight
It was recently announced that nine out of ten corona patients in intensive care are overweight. As reported in today’s Dagblad van het Noorden, the UMCG has discovered that adipose tissue plays an important role in the development of the Coronavirus in parients. The findings were also shared on Tuesday evening by Peter van der Voorst, Head of the Intensive Care unit, on the TV programme Jinek.
According to Van der Voort ninety percent of the seriously ill patients have a BMI of over 25. This is likely because the Coronavirus is constructed in such a way that, once in the lungs, it sticks more easily to adipose tissues.
According to the researchers, people with less fat are very unlikely to get so sick that they have be supported by a ventilator in intensive care, but obese people with a BMI score above 25 happen have a bigger chance. “It is the combination of a lot of adipose tissue and Covid-19 that causes direct lung damage,” says Van der Voort.
