{"id":101600,"date":"2020-04-26T16:11:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T23:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101600"},"modified":"2020-04-26T16:11:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T23:11:44","slug":"corona-is-color-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/26\/corona-is-color-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"Corona is color blind?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In the UK, people from BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds are\u00a0disproportionately<\/strong>\u00a0affected by Coronavirus. For instance,\u00a0the first 10 doctors named as having died from Covid-19 in the UK were\u00a0all<\/strong>\u00a0from BAME communities. Nobody can give a good enough reason for this yet and the UK government has already launched an investigation\/inquiry to find out why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attached below are two newspaper articles on the subject, one\nfrom Guardian (left wing) and another from Telegraph (right wing) for your\ninfo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a similar trend\/ finding in Canada, US and Why are\npeople from BAME groups dying disproportionately of Covid-19?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month the Institute of Health <\/a>Equity-produced a\nreport reviewing Marmot\u2019s Fair Society, Healthy Lives<\/a>.\nThe report highlighted two key findings; a growth in the health gap between\nwealthy and deprived areas and an increase in the number of people who will\nspend more of their lives in poor health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The review also found that the health of a population was not entirely based on the strength, resilience, or functionality of the healthcare system but rather on the conditions in which people are born, grow, work and eventually age. Marmot coined this as the social determinants of health and the implications of this are evident more than ever when you look at the case prevalence, mortality rate and\u00a0hospitalisation statistics by demographic<\/a>\u00a0in relation to Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent report by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre has found that the patients from black and ethnic minority backgrounds have shown more severe complications of the disease. The study looked at 2,249 patients in the critical care units participating in the Case Mix Programme. Individuals who identified as non-white makeup around 13 percent of the UK population but accounted for a third of the patients that were admitted to critical care.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/apr\/22\/why-are-people-from-bame-groups-dying-disproportionately-of-<\/a>\ncovid-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Devlin April 22, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One explanation for why people from black and minority ethnic\n(BAME) backgrounds are dying in disproportionately high numbers is demography.\nThe virus hit London first and hit it hardest. But even when you take these\nregional differences into account there is a mismatch. In particular, if you\ntake into account that ethnic minorities are generally younger \u2013 particularly\nimportant for Covid-19 where 90% of deaths are in people over 60 \u2013 the ethnic\ndifferences become even more stark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-morbidities could certainly play a role. The black\npopulation, where the discrepancy appears to be greatest, is particularly\nafflicted with hypertension. Diabetes is three-fold higher in this ethnic\ngroup. Both of those conditions will increase your risk of death once you\u2019ve\ngot Covid. The added problem is that these conditions occur at a younger age in\npeople of black descent. However, in mitigation against that, certainly older\npeople of black African descent don\u2019t smoke as much, so have less respiratory\ndisease, have lower rates of cancers and coronary disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Asian populations, the story is a bit different, but again\nthere is a four-fold excess in diabetes and blood pressure rises higher with\nage in South Asians compared to Europeans.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genetics sounds like an easy get-out clause, but it isn\u2019t.\nEthnicity is a complex socio- cultural construct, it\u2019s not a biology construct.\nThere\u2019s no gene for being Asian. There\u2019s no gene for being black. People of\nethnic group membership can change over time and with age, it\u2019s not an\nimmutable thing and it very poorly maps on to any biology you can think of.\nPeople have looked to see if there\u2019s a genetic explanation for these ethnic\ndifferences in chronic disease and have been unable to find one, despite having\nlooked quite hard in large numbers. So there\u2019s no evidence that genes explain\nthe excess risk of Covid susceptibility. It\u2019s important to put a nail in that\none because it feels as if we can abdicate any responsibility for sorting this\nout and this<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethnic minorities are over-represented in high-risk occupations,\nincluding health workers, in the transport sector and essential shop work.\nClearly, there\u2019s a huge amount of heterogeneity, but overall ethnic minorities\nare more likely to live in deprived, dense, over-crowded urban areas and are\nmore likely to be disadvantaged. In some cases, household composition could\nplay a role, particularly in Asian households where you have multi-generational\nhouseholds living together.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 So both through occupation and residential reasons,\nthey\u2019re less able to socially isolate effectively and much more likely to be\nexposed to high doses of the virus. There\u2019s some suggestion that the greater\nthe dose you\u2019re exposed to the more likely the disease is to prove fatal.\nThat\u2019s perhaps one reason why even quite young healthcare workers are\nsuccumbing to the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evidence on ethnic differences in healthcare-seeking behavior is quite messy, and we need to remember that these are quite heterogeneous groups. For instance, people of black ancestry have been found to be less likely to consult for chronic diseases like diabetes, but that doesn\u2019t mean to say that if it\u2019s an acute condition they won\u2019t come forward. One study of people accessing antiviral flu treatments in the flu pandemic of 2009 found that ethnic minorities were less likely to ask and less likely to collect these. But whether this was due to reluctance, differences in access to healthcare, the way the message was put across or racism \u2013 it is difficult to pick apart because the healthcare-seeking process is so complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, this is about health inequalities, about deprivation\nand affluence and how important socio-economic status is in determining health\noutcomes. This isn\u2019t just an ethnicity story, it affects all of us. Britain has\na long history of health inequalities. It\u2019s critically important to understand\nand I\u2019m relieved that the government is taking this seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Chaturvedi is director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong\nhealth <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are so many black and ethnic minority people dying from\ncoronavirus?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

telegraph.co.uk\/news\/0\/why-bame-people-dying-coronavirus-black-ethnic-minority\/<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 By Gabriella Swerling, Dominic<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A review into why people from ethnic minorities are\ndisturbingly\u201d and disproportionately affected by coronavirus has been launched\nby the Government.In UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inquiry comes after weeks of pressure on ministers to launch\nan investigation into the issue. 50 BAME front-line health staff have now died\nof coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Downing Street confirmed the NHS and Public Health England will\nlead the review of evidence concerning the impact on people black, Asian and\nminority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many BAME people have died?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite only accounting for 13 per cent of the population in\nEngland and Wales, 44 per cent of all NHS doctors and 24 per cent of nurses are\nfrom a BAME background. Of the 82 front-line health and social care workers in\nEngland and Wales that have died because of Covid-19, 61 per cent of them were\nblack or from an ethnic minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them was Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a 53-year-old consultant\nwho warned the Prime Minister about the need for more personal protective\nequipment (PPE) to support NHS staff during the pandemic.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Facebook post last month, he warned Boris Johnson to\nensure urgently personal protective equipment for each and every NHS worker\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Chowdhury, who worked as a consultant urologist at Homerton\nHospital in east London, said in his post: People appreciate us and salute us\nfor our rewarding job which are very inspirational but I would like to say we\nhave to protect ourselves and our families\/kids in this global disaster\/crisis\nby using appropriate PPE and remedies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manjeet Singh Riyat, who was the United Kingdom’s first Sikh\nA&E consultant, died on April 20. Mr Riyat was described as\n“instrumental” in building emergency services in Derbyshire over the\nlast two decades, and was widely respected across the NHS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said:\nManjeet had spent most of his life helping others as an A&E consultant,\nfrom treating the sick to training junior doctors. Something very much in line\nwith his faith principles of being a devout Sikh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 This is a true tragedy, as another frontline NHS worker\nfalls victim to this deadly virus. His death comes as a huge loss to the Derby\n& Burton hospital, wider NHS family and to the whole Sikh community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The limited data available and images of those who have passed\naway suggests Covid- 19 is disproportionally impacting on Sikhs and wider BAME\ncommunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, British Medical Association (BMA) council\nchair, welcomed the review into BAME deaths, but stressed it must be informed\nby real-time data to understand why the virus appears to be disproportionately\naffecting BAME communities and healthcare workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This must include daily updates on ethnicity, circumstance and\nall protected characteristics of all patients in hospital as well as levels of\nillness in the community which is not currently recorded,\u201d Dr Nagpaul said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government must send a directive to every hospital telling\nthem to record the ethnicity of patients who are admitted and succumb to COVID\nimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are there more BAME coronavirus patients?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black, Asian and minority ethnic patients are shown by new data\nto face a disproportionately high risk of death from coronavirus. Of the 13,918\nvictims who tested positive in hospital up to April 17, 16.2 per cent of these\nwere of BAME background. BAME communities make up around 13 per cent of the\ntotal population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, data on patients with confirmed Covid-19 from the\nIntensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) also suggested\nethnic minorities are over- represented compared with the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 7.5 per cent of the population were Asian and 3.3 per\ncent black in the 2011 UK census.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first 10 doctors named as having died from Covid-19 in the\nUK were from BAME communities – a figure that the Labour Party described as\n“deeply disturbing”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some analysts have suggested that the burden of coronavirus falls\non poorer communities, in which BAME people are over-represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are BAME communities more vulnerable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marsha de Cordova, the shadow equalities secretary, called for\nthe Government to “urgently investigate why BAME communities are more\nvulnerable to this virus”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her call came after the chairman of the BMA, Dr Nagpaul, said it\ncould not be random that the first 10 doctors named as having died from the\nvirus were all from BAME communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Those doctors have ancestry in regions including Asia, the\nMiddle East and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa. However, the BMA chair said that even allowing for the\nover-representation of BAME staff in the NHS the fact that they were all from\nethnic minorities was extremely disturbing and worrying\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

England’s Chief Medical Officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said it was\ncritical to find out which groups are most at risk. He said it remains unclear\nwhy some ethnic groups appear to be more vulnerable. “I’ve had discussions\nwith scientists about this in terms of trying to tease this apart today,”\nhe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about BAME patients outside of the UK?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not just in the UK that the number of BAME people affected\nby coronavirus has caused alarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, there has been growing concern over the rising number of coronavirus deaths among African-American communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest data suggests that people who are black or Hispanic in the US are twice as likely to die from Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In states reporting fatalities by race, 34 percent of American victims were black, according to research from John Hopkins University, and black Americans also represent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is essential that Sri Lankan research organizations ponder\ninto the fact that the rate of infection of high portion of a certain minority\nmay be due to their life style <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One said that moor community attends the prayers and keep touching the floor by placing the temple on the ground and also place both unprotected hands on their face thus increasing the danger of getting infected ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Sarath Obeysekera <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Sarath Obeysekera
\nCEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard
\nColombo
\nSri Lanka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0 In the UK, people from BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds are\u00a0disproportionately\u00a0affected by Coronavirus. For instance,\u00a0the first 10 doctors named as having died from Covid-19 in the UK were\u00a0all\u00a0from BAME communities. Nobody can give a good enough reason for this yet and the UK government has already launched an investigation\/inquiry to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}