Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2021; 117(5): 922-923
The High Pressure of Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic
Isabela Bispo Santos da Silva Costa
, Hugo Bizetto Zampa
This Short Editorial is referred by the Research article "Association of Hypertension with Severity and Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: A Single-centered, Retrospective Study".
Although we have been facing the challenges posed by the new coronavirus for almost two years, we still have a long way to go. The rapid and easy spread of the virus not only worries the population and scientific society as a whole but also exposes the fragility of the Brazilian public health system. The numbers speak for themselves – the exorbitant rates of infected people and, consequently, the number of deaths made us question the handling of this health crisis.
In this scenario, elderly individuals with comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and coronary artery disease were the ones who suffered most from COVID-19. The virus in the body leads to extensive endothelial dysfunction, mediated by inflammatory cytokines and thrombogenic factors, disseminated microvascular lesions and serious complications, such as pulmonary and systemic embolism, myocardial injury and renal dysfunction. These manifestations proved to be potentially fatal, especially in the group listed here, mainly due to the concomitant presence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
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