High Risk for COVID19?

Asked and answere (sorta)

by AgentX86 - 2020-03-29 01:34:52

Read through the posts to this forum over the past few weeks.  Lotsa discussion, little consensus.

Reasons for having pacemaker/other conditions

by Pacemum - 2020-03-29 05:27:37

It depends of the reason for having the pacemaker and if you have any other conditions.  Just having a pacemaker does not place you in the extemely vulunerable groups.

Urgent implants for pacemakers and ICDs will continue.

Remote monitoring is being used.  Most pacemaker and ICD patients will already have monitors.

Everyone should be social distancing and if you fit in any of the extremely vulunerable groups you should be shielding yourself.

General guidelines for heart disease

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/coronavirus-and-your-health

Guidelines from the British Congenital Heart Association.

The first link below provides detailed advice covering ace inhibitors and removal of thymus etc

https://www.bcca-uk.org/pages/news_box.asp?NewsID=19495710

Further updated advice issued below for high risk patients

https://www.bcca-uk.org/pages/news_box.asp?NewsID=19495711

Guidelines for Congenital Heart Children and Adults

https://leedscongenitalhearts.com/articles/view/98/coronavirus-advice-paediatric-patient-advice-chd

https://leedscongenitalhearts.com/articles/view/99/coronavirus-advice-adult-patient-advice-achd

Why ask?

by Gotrhythm - 2020-03-29 14:28:45

At this point in the pandemic, I can't help but wonder why you ask.

No matter what the answer is, what difference would it make?

High risk or not

by TimMcCoy - 2020-03-29 15:10:15

Gotrhythm, I ask because my friends keep telling me that I am high risk if I contract COVID19 merely because I have a pacemaker. My health is good otherwise and I don't consider myself high risk. I thought I'd get this forum's input because well, you are the experts in my eyes. 

My behavior is not dependent on the answer to my question, however. 

Thanks, Tim

Probably not.

by Graham M - 2020-03-29 16:31:12

Unless you have other underlying health issues, having a PM probably does not put you in the high risk group.

Bradycardia is caused by a breakdown in the "electrical" activity of your heart, not damage to the heart's contractile tissue.  The PM should keep you ticking over qute happily.

Having a PM will not make us more susceptible to the virus, but if we all follow the social distancing rules, we should be slightly safer.

Graham.

Forget the pacemaker. Check the statistics--you ARE "high risk"

by Gotrhythm - 2020-03-29 17:50:40

Tim, I peeked at your member info. According to your birth year, you're in the group that's at high risk for serious illness by virtue of your age. Period. 

It doesn't matter how healthy you believe you are, whether or not you have a pacemaker. Age alone puts you (and me) in the "high risk" category.

You might be willing to kid yourself and think you're not at high risk, but the data is clear. The older one is, the more likely one is to be made seriously ill by the virus. And the older one is, the more likely the illness will be fatal.

BTW statistically-speaking men are more likely to die of Covid 19.

Statistically-speaking

by AgentX86 - 2020-03-29 21:44:08

I love statistics.  You can make them say anything you want them to say.  Was every other variable controlled in the "men are more likely to die..." statistic?  I doubt it. There's a lot hokum out there right now (mostly BS by the news media).

What I'd like to see is the number of smoking-related WuFlu fatalities, vs. non-smoker fatalities, and the smokers in the  population as a whole, by countery country.  My SWAG is that you'd see a fairly strong correlation but maybe not.

Kidding myself...

by TimMcCoy - 2020-03-30 00:07:13

Gotrhythym, I think I may have been misleading in a way. I know I am high risk by virtue of age and even obesity. My physician friends tell me obesity is a real biggie when it comes to prognosis. I was wondering if folks are right when they tell me just having a pacemaker deems one high risk. 

Thanks, Tim

Pacemaker by itself would not be high risk

by Gemita - 2020-03-30 02:12:46

Hello Tim,

My understanding is having a pacemaker by itself would NOT mean you would be at a higher risk of contracting the virus or at a higher risk of dying from the virus should you ever test positive.  The pacemaker on its own is not an illness, but of course "the reason why we needed the pacemaker in the first place", could put us at higher risk, for example heart failure and other forms of structural heart disease.

However, having said the above(!) if, for example, your leads or device became infected causing a widespread systemic infection or you developed an allergic reaction to the materials contained in the device/leads and either one of these examples triggered a massive immune system response, this could potentially undermine/overwhelm your immune system and make it less able to fight the virus effectively should you contract it.  In this unlikely situation your pacemaker by itself could be a very high risk and might need to be removed/replaced if infection and/or allergy could not be effectively treated.  Does that make sense ??  But really what are the odds of this happening ??

I believe you are already aware of the highest risk conditions which would render us "extremely" vulnerable but let's just list a few:  solid organ transplant patients;   patients with lung diseases like cystic fibrosis, severe COPD, severe asthma;   cancer patients, especially if having chemotherapy/radiotherapy for specific cancers which would weaken immune system;   autoimmune conditions and patients on immunosuppression treatments.   Pregnant women with significant heart disease.  Then high risk patients would include those with heart disease, Diabetes, smokers, in fact any chronic condition that could undermine our immune system and make it less able to fight off the virus.  Old age would definitely be a risk factor and the older, the higher the risk.  (Here in the UK higher risk is age over 70 yrs).  I see you are still a relatively young man at  68-69, in good health.  I would be happy with that

Risk

by Dave H - 2020-03-31 12:52:37

Higher if you're 65+, have heart issues, lung issues, etc.  Like I stated a few weeks ago, somewhere's on this site, "We are in the first inning of this game."  We're now in inning number four, and COVID has the lead.