A Computational Approach to Qualitative Analysis of COVID-19 Mortality Rates with Pre-existing Conditions.

Background/Introduction: Coronaviruses can cause illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This can be life-threatening to individuals with pre-existing chronic diseases.
Significance: Some people are at a higher risk for serious infection and can result in immediate deaths due to factors such as a person’s age, scarring, inflammation and lung damage. To prevent severe outcomes, it is necessary to understand the pre-existing abnormalities in health conditions. These can predispose patients to prevent the infections and diagnosis.
Methods/Experimental Design: In this study, we focused on 21 pre-existing health conditions among 26,0821 subjects in USA during the year 2020-2021. This information was collected from the public resources available in Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). We used computational techniques with Python tools and curated the available data from the electronic health records from the above two resources. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine the association of pre-existing health conditions with COVID-19 deaths.
Results/Major Findings: Among the compared pre-existing health conditions, Infuenza and Pneumonia (19.29%), and Respiratory Failure (15.79%) caused the highest percent of deaths. In the other pre-existing conditions like Hypertensive Disease (8.24%), Diabetes (6.69%), Cardiac arrest (5.08%), Ischemic Heart Disease (4.58%), Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (4.37% ), Renal Failure, Sepsis (4.04%), Vascular and dementia (4.04%), Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease (3.72%), Heart Failure (3.22%), Cardiac arrhythmia (3.13%), Circulatory System Disease (2.74%), Cerebro Vascular Disease Malignant Neoplasm (2.09%), and Obesity (1.71%) caused Covid-19 deaths. We hypothesized that the Respiratory illness caused by Flu virus, Influenza and other Respiratory viruses deleterious immune responses against any infection caused inadequate repair mechanisms in the lung tissue. This contributed to the higher rates of deaths due to COVID-19.
Conclusion: Based on our analysis, it is implied that the flu vaccinations or the use of antivirals, targeting host factors that drive inflammation and immunopathology, offer a promising alternative treatment strategy for the COVID-19 infections.