People with intellectual disabilities hit harder by Covid

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People with intellectual disabilities are more likely than others to die from the coronavirus during the pandemic, according to researchers at Radboud Teaching Hospital in Nijmegen, as the virus has a negative impact on their general health. I gave

At least 785 people with intellectual disabilities have died from Covid in the two years of the pandemic, but proportionately, the total should have been 180 or less, researchers told news agency ANP.

The research team also looked at other effects of the pandemic on life expectancy for people with intellectual disabilities, concluding that they are more likely to die from cancer as well as brain and nervous system problems.

Radboudamk researcher Marten Kuipers told ANP, “This shows that the difference in health status between people with and without mental disorders has widened during the pandemic.

“We know very little about the impact of coronavirus and other viruses on people with disabilities, partly because this group is often overlooked and deviates from the ‘norm’.”

nursing home

People with intellectual disabilities were also more likely to contract coronavirus because they often lived in institutions and smaller units where rules were more difficult to follow. Close contact exposed them to more infections.

Especially early in the pandemic, PPE was in short supply in nursing homes, and cases surged among people with disabilities and frail older people.

More research is needed to develop better policies to deal with the problem, researchers say, and the number of deaths should be reduced in the event of similar situations in the future.

An article was published in lancet public health.

of Dutch Safety Board OVV It said last February that nursing homes in the Netherlands were a “silent disaster” when the pandemic hit.