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A third of covid-19 patients admitted to UK hospitals die

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1794 (Published 30 April 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m1794

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Re: A third of covid-19 patients admitted to UK hospitals die

Dear Editor

I have very grave concerns about this survey that makes no mention of Hypertension as a comorbidity being made. It would seem likely unfortunately that the high percentage 47% of no comorbidity record may be a reflection of poor history recording (see BMJ blog covid19 and hypertension: risks and management). It seems a great pity that this wasn't looked at more closely.

One way of addressing this lack of information may have been to record all the medications patients were on when admitted and look at this to identify a link. If the team still has access to the information perhaps they could do this.

It also might be possible to see from this why there is a difference in mortality between the men and women. It is well known that women have received different medications to men after having been admitted to hospital for cardiac events.

Competing interests: No competing interests

01 May 2020
donald mcelhinney
general practitioner retired
Ipswich