If someone has high blood pressure, they have two times the risk of dying from COVID-19 if they become sick, a new study shows.
The new study, published by the European Heart Journal this week was conducted by a team of international researchers.
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“Soon after we started to treat Covid-19 patients in early February in Wuhan, we noticed that nearly half of the patients who died had high blood pressure, which was a much higher percentage compared to those with only mild Covid-19 symptoms,” researcher Ling Tao said in a statement.
While it had been documented already that patients with high blood pressure would likely experience more serious symptoms, this study documented the severity of the risk.
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The researchers studied nearly 3,000 patients who have been treated for COVID-19. About 30% of them had high blood pressure.
While 1.1% of patients with normal blood pressure died from the virus, 4% with high blood pressure died from COVID-19, the researchers found.
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“It is important that patients with high blood pressure realize that they are at increased risk of dying from Covid-19. They should take good care of themselves during this pandemic and they need more attention if they are infected with the coronavirus,” researcher Fei Li told CNN health.
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