Covid-19 related deaths among doctors in India

  1. Aanandita Kapoor
  2. Krishan Mohan Kapoor

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Abstract

Background

India has the most number of COVID-19 cases in the world currently, second only to the USA. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused high mortality not only in patients but also health care providers. In this paper, our aim is to analyze the cases of deaths in Indian doctors due to COVID-19 infection.

Methods

The details of data were taken from the list of the deceased doctors in India due to COVID-19 infection, which was compiled by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the top body of Indian doctors practicing modern allopathic medicine. The key data fields of age, specialty, and geographical location of the deceased doctors were extracted from the given list, and analysis was performed.

Results

A total of 382 COVID-related deaths and 2174 infections were reported amongst doctors in India till 10 September 2020, with a case fatality rate of 16.7% among Indian doctors, which was ten times the CFR of 1.7% in the general population. Among the practicing doctors, after excluding the resident doctors and house surgeons, the CFR was 36.4%, which is almost 22 times more than what was seen in general population of India. The average age of COVID-related deaths in Indian doctors was 60.8 years, with a median age of 60; 62% of deaths among doctors were in the above 60 years, age group. The maximum number of deceased doctors were amongst general practitioners 225(58.9%). Among the specialists, most deaths were seen in paediatricians 26(6.8%), medical specialists 24(6.3%), general surgeons 22(5.8%), obstetricians & gynecologists 16(4.2%), and anesthesiologists 14(3.7%). The highest COVID-19 related deaths in doctors were seen in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra in that order.

Conclusions

The mortality rate is very high among doctors in India compared to the general population. The average age of COVID-19 related death was 60 years among doctors. General practitioners and 60 years+ doctors are at a much higher risk of mortality among the doctors. The states with the high number of COVID-19 cases in India, also had a higher number of doctor deaths.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.28.20202796: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.28.20202796v1 on medRxiv