COVID-19 and the elderly

Abstract

COVID-19 has become a great burden of the world in respect of health care, social, and economical reason. Several million people died worldwide so far and more and more mutants are generated and spread. Older people with co-morbidities and frailty syndrome have a significantly higher risk to get the infection and also higher the risk of a more serious disease process. Mortality of COVID-19 is also higher in case of geriatric patients. In this review we attempted to summarize the factors of the higher susceptibility for more serious disease, what actions need to be taken for defending older patients and also special aspects of clinical presentation including ophthalmic symptoms.

Keywords: COVID-19; ageing; elderly; geriatric; pneumonia; venous thromboembolism.