In the first month of the population containment measures to prevent covid-19 , Portugal registered more 1.255 deaths than usual, over half of which (51%) not deriving from the pandemic, but from diseases such as myocardial infarction. “This shows that we cannot focus solely on covid-19 and that people have to resume their treatments and resort once again to health services”, stated Rui Campante Teles , interventional cardiologist at Hospital da Luz Lisboa, on SIC channel, with regard to the recent study by the National School of Public Health, which indicates an excess in mortality in the aforesaid period compared to the norm. According to these numbers – that are under detailed analysis by the Portuguese Association of Cardiovascular Intervention (APIC), previously presided by Rui Campante Teles –, between March 16 and April 14 this year, there were more 1.255 deaths. The majority of these cases refer to people over 75 years old, the age group of about a third of the population, where cardiovascular diseases are predominant, followed by oncologic diseases. “It is obvious that, with the containment and the fear of the pandemic, people restrained themselves and avoided resorting to health services, which can be fatal in the case of cardiovascular diseases ”, stresses the specialist, quoting the example of the statistics relating to Hospital de Santa Cruz, where he also practices: in that first month of containment, there was a 50% reduction in catheterizations performed for the treatment of myocardial infarction in patients arriving through the 911 service. This reduction, he adds, didn’t occur exclusively in Portugal, other studies with similar conclusions having been carried out by a combination of 80 hospital centres from different countries in Europe. Rui Campante Teles leads, since June this year, the Commission of Education, Training and Certification, of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI), integrated in the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
