COVID-19 in Geriatric Age Group - A Review
Abstract
Coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis that has affected the entire mankind. The elderlies are a specific cluster of high-risk patients for developing COVID-19 infection with rapid clinical deterioration. Frailty and comorbid conditions in the geriatric age group may be associated with mortality, considering the diversity of results in the existing literature. The present document has been drafted to review the available literature and evidences on this infection in geriatric age group which is particularly vulnerable to this disease and its fatal manifestations.
How to cite this article:
Rewari A, Sanan R, Dabas N, Phogat S, Singh D. COVID-19 in Geriatric Age Group - A Review. J Commun Dis 2020; 52(4): 81-87.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0019.5138.202045
References
Siordia JA Jr. Epidemiology and clinical features of COVID-19: A review of current literature. Journal of
Clinical Virology 2020.
Rothan HA, Byrareddy SN. The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
outbreak. Journal of Autoimmunity 2020; 109: 102433.
Watts BA, Thomas-Bachli A, Huber C et al. Pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China: potential for
international spread via commercial air travel. J Trav Med 2020.
Lu H, Stratton CW, Tang YW. Outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan China: the mystery and
the miracle. J Med Virol 2020; 92(4): 401-2.
Abdulamir AS, Hafidh RR. The possible immunological pathways for the variable immunopathogenesis of
COVID-19 infections among healthy adults, elderly and children. Electron J Gen Med 2020; 17(4): 1-4.
Applegate WB, Ouslander JG. COVID-19 Presents High Risk to Older Persons. J Am Geriatr Soc 2020; 68(4): 681.
Huang C, Wang Y, Li X et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China.
Lancet 2020; 395(10223): 497-506.
Meo SA, Alhowikan AM, Al-Khlaiwi T et al. Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: prevalence, biological and
clinical characteristics comparison with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2020; 24(4).
Xu J, Zhao S, Teng T et al. Systematic comparison of two animal-to-human transmitted human coronaviruses:
SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. Viruses 2020; 12(2).
Nickel CH, Rueegg M, Pargger H et al. Age, comorbidity, frailty status: effects on disposition and resource
allocation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Swiss Med Wkly 2020; 150(1718).
Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Zhong NS et al. Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in China. Med
Rxiv 2020.
Zhou F, Yu T, Du R et al. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult in patients with COVID-19 in
Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet 2020.
Xu XW, Wu XX, Jiang XG et al. Clinical findings in a group of patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus
(SARS-Cov-2) outside of Wuhan, China: retrospective case series. BMJ 2020; 368: m606.
Liu K, Chen Y, Lin R et al. Clinical features of COVID-19 in elderly patients: A comparison with young and middle aged patients. J Infect 2020; 80(6): e14-8.
Stadnytskyi V, Bax CE, Bax A et al. The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. PNAS 2020; 117(22): 11875-7.
Liu W, Tao ZW, Lei W et al. Analysis of factors associated with disease outcomes in hospitalized patients with
novel coronavirus disease. Chin Med J 2020.
Li Q, Guan X, Wu P et al. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel coronavirus infected
pneumonia. N Engl J Med 2020; 382: 1199-207.
He X, Wu P, Lau EHY et al. Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19. MedRxiv,
Nishiura H, Kobayashi T, Miyama T et al. Estimation of the asymptomatic ratio of novel coronavirus infections
(COVID-19). Int J Infect Dis 2020.
Ng OT, Marimuthu K, Chia PY et al. SARS-CoV2 infection among travellers returning from Wuhan, China. N Engl J Med 2020.
Wang L, Gao YH, Lou LL et al. The clinical dynamics of 18 cases of COVID-19 outside of Wuhan, China. Eur
Resp J 2020.
Lo IL, Lio CF, Cheong HH et al. Evaluation of SARSCoV-2 RNA shedding in clinical specimens and clinical
characteristics of 10 patients with COVID-19 in Macau. Int J Biol Sci 2020; 16: 1698-707.
Wu Z, Mc Googan JM. Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
outbreak in China: summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. JAMA 2020.
Malone ML. The Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. COVID-19 in older adults: key points for
emergency department providers. Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine 2020; 1(4).
Wang L, He W, Yu X et al. Coronavirus disease 2019 in elderly patients: Characteristics and prognostic factors
based on 4-week follow-up. J Infect 2020; 80(6).
Wang D, Hu B, Hu C et al. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirusinfected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA 2020; 323(11): 1061-9.
Corman VM, Landt O, Kaiser M et al. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR.
Eur Surveill 2020; 25(3): 2000045.
Ai T, Yang Z, Hou H et al. Correlation of chest CT and RT-PCR testing in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
in China: a report of 1014 cases. Radiology 2020.
General Office of National Health Committee, Office of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Notice on the Issuance of a Program for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
Infected Pneumonia (Trial Fifth Edition), 2020.
Fang Y, Zhang H, Xie J et al. Sensitivity of chest CT for COVID-19: comparison to RT-PCR. Radiol 2020.
Bernheim A, Mei X, Huang M et al. Chest CT findings in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19): relationship to
duration of infection, Radiology 2020; 200463.
Armitage R, Nellums LB. COVID-19 and the consequences of isolating the elderly. Lancet Public Heal 2020; 5(5): e256.
Yang Y, Li W, Zhang Q et al. Mental health services for older adults in China during the COVID19 outbreak.
The Lancet Psychiatry 2020; 7(4): e19.
Banskota S, Healy M, Goldberg EM. 15 Smartphone apps for older adults to use while in isolation during
the COVID19 pandemic. West J Emerg Med 2020; 21(3): 514-25.
Cao B, Wang Y, Wen D et al. A trial of lopinavir-ritonavir in adults hospitalized with severe Covid-19. N Engl J
Med 2020.
Li Z, Wang X, Cao D et al. Rapid review for the anticoronavirus effect of Remdisivir. Drug Discov Ther
; 14: 73-76.
Sanders JM, Monogue ML, Jodlowski TZ et al. Pharmacologic treatments for coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) a review. JAMA 2020.
Sargiacomo C, Sotgia F, Lisanti MP. COVID-19 and chronological aging: senolytics and other anti-aging
drugs for the treatment or prevention of corona virus infection? Aging (Albany NY) 2020; 12(8): 6511-7.
Har-Noy M, Or R. Allo-priming as a universal anti-viral vaccine: protecting elderly from current COVID-19
and any future unknown viral outbreak. J Transl Med 2020; 18(1): 196.40. Wu C, Chen X, Cai Y et al. Risk factors associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome and death in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia in Wuhan. JAMA 2020.
Pandey MM. Indian traditional Ayurveda system of medicine and nutritional supplementation. Evidence-
Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2013.
Yang Y, Islam MS, Wang J et al. Traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of patients infected with
-New Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2): a review and perspective. International Journal of Biological Sciences
; 16(10): 1708-17.
Ren JL, Zhang AH, Wang XJ. Traditional Chinese medicine for COVID-19 treatment. Pharmacol Res
; 155: 104743.
Rastogi S. COVID-19 pandemic: A pragmatic plan for Ayurveda intervention. J Ayurveda Integr Med 2020.
Tillu G, Chaturvedi S, Chopra A et al. Public health approach of Ayurveda and yoga for COVID-19
prophylaxis. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2020; 10(10): 1-5.
Cinatl J, Morgenstern B, Bauer G et al. Glycyrrhizin, an active component of liquorice roots, and replication of
SARS-associated coronavirus. Lancet 2003; 361: 2045-6.
Leung C. Clinical features of deaths in the novel coronavirus epidemic in China. Rev Med Virol 2020.
Zhang J, Dong X, Cao YY et al. Clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China.
Allergy, 2020.
Yamamoto S, Yamazaki S, Shimizu T et al. Body temperature at the emergency department as a
predictor of mortality in patients with bacterial infection. Medicine 2006; 95(21): e3628.
Obermeyer Z, Samra JK, Mullainathan S. Individual differences in normal body temperature: longitudinal
big data analysis of patient records. BMJ 2017; 359: j5468.
Copyright (c) 2020 Journal of Communicable Diseases (E-ISSN: 2581-351X & P-ISSN: 0019-5138)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
