COVID-19 and living with comorbidities

Writer: De Waal Steyn.

Every time I go ‘inside the out’ (with acknowledgement to Pixar Animation Studios) I tell myself I will not set foot out of the house again until the Covid-19 pandemic is under control or I have been given the much-anticipated vaccine.

Like many of our readers, I am faced with the added burden of comorbidities that place me in the category of those who may contract severe COVID-19. Apart from taking immuno-suppressants every day to help my body fight Rheumatoid Arthritis I also suffer from hypertension, thanks to spending most of the last 30 years in newsrooms. If you think reading the news is stressful, try publishing it!

Before the pandemic burst onto the scene, I had never heard the word comorbidity, which is the presence of one or more additional disease or condition together with a primary medical condition. In other words, comorbidities are the accomplices which conspire with COVID-19 to kill. According to studies, the top five are: diabetes, hypertension, HIV, obesity, and asthma/ chronic respiratory disease.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 2 and 3)