Characteristics of Doctors’ Fatality due to COVID-19 in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific countries

Izumi Yoshida, Tetsuya Tanimoto, Noemie Schiever, Federica Patelli, Masahiro Kami

Published: 06 May 2020

Note

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the deaths of healthcare professionals have been increasingly reported worldwide. We performed a cross-sectional, observational study using news reports on the websites among selected countries as of April, 2020. We found 120 dead medical doctors due to COVID-19 in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific countries; 67 in Italy (47 in the Northern part), 34 in China (22 in Hubei), 6 in France, 4 in the UK, the US, and Spain, and 1 in South Korea, respectively. Among them, 90% were men, and specialties were reported as general practitioners for 30% and as physicians for 11.6%. The overall proportions of dead medical doctors amounted to 1.9 per 10,000 confirmed cases and 30.2 per 10,000 dead cases, respectively. Proactive measures are warranted to protect doctors especially who often encounters with COVID-19 patients.

Reference

Oxford University Press – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa159