Measures of Mortality in Coronavirus (COVID-19) Compared With SARS and MERS

authors:

avatar ehsan allah kalteh ORCID 1 , * , avatar Aiuob Sofizadeh 2 , avatar Mohammad Fararouei ORCID 3 , avatar Mousa Ghelichi-Ghojogh ORCID 4 , avatar Somayeh Aljalili 5

MSc of Epidemiology, Infectious Disease Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
MPH of Field Epidemiology, Infectious Disease Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
HIV/AIDS research center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
PhD Student in Epidemiology, Student Research Commitee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
MD, Health Center of Kavar, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

how to cite: kalteh E A, Sofizadeh A, Fararouei M, Ghelichi-Ghojogh M, Aljalili S. Measures of Mortality in Coronavirus (COVID-19) Compared With SARS and MERS. J Cell Mol Anesth. 2020;5(2):e149621. https://doi.org/10.22037/jcma.v5i2.30220.

Abstract

In late 2019, a novel coronavirus, now designated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the cause of an outbreak of acute respiratory illness in Wuhan, a city in China. Mortality rate, case fatality rate, and Years of Potential Life Lost can be measured by determining death cases. Much of our information on mortality rates of diseases can be obtained through a regular implementation of care plans that are often developed to screen infectious diseases. In the YLL component, the higher the individuals die at an earlier age, the longer their life is lost. For COVID-19, this component refers to the simple subtraction of age at death due to COVID-19 from the standardized life expectancy for the same age in the same sex. A potential application of health summary indices is to consider the non-fatal consequences of diseases to ensure that they are taken into account in health policy making. Given that COVID-19 has a non-fatal effect on a large number of patients, the estimation of disease burden using the DALYs may be an appropriate index for achieving this goal.