As the novel coronavirus pandemic tightens its hold on the U.S., experts are looking to Germany for ways to keep the American death toll in check.
Germany has the lowest mortality rate of any country in the world, only 0.4%, and experts say that this is partially due to the country’s early and aggressive testing of potential COVID-19 cases, CNN reports.
“At the beginning, when we had relatively few cases, when it came to finding them and isolating them, we did quite well in Germany,” Reinhard Busse, head of the department of healthcare management at the Berlin University of Technology, tells MSN. “That’s the major reason.”
Despite more than 25,000 infections, the fifth-most in the world, Germany maintains the lowest mortality rate. In contrast, in Italy, some 9.5% of people confirmed to have the virus died.
Experts tell Bloomberg there is another factor in play. In Germany, many of the early cases were in young and healthy people aged 35 to 59 years of age. A mere 2.7% of confirmed infections were in people over the age of 80. According to Lothar Wieler, of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s pubic health advisory the average age of those killed was 82.
“The real risk is the geriatric age and also concurring illnesses such as high blood pressure and diabetes,” says Italian geriatric professor Roberto Bernabei to Bloomberg. “These lead to a greater aggressiveness from the virus.”
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