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COVID-19: What are the Stages and Causes of Death?

Medically reviewed by Melisa Puckey, BPharm. Last updated on July 22, 2024.

Official Answer by Drugs.com

What are the signs, symptoms and stages of COVID-19, and what causes death in COVID-19? How long do you spend in the ICU with COVID-19? How long do you have COVID-19 before you die?

What are the stages and symptoms of COVID-19?

A study published in The Lancet studied the patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 and compared details of the patients who passed away and patients that survived.

This figure below shows the progression and duration of the major symptoms of COVID-19 in survivors and non-survivors for hospitalized patients in the study.

progression and duration of the major symptoms of COVID-19

Figure 1. Clinical courses of major symptoms and outcomes and duration of viral shedding from illness onset in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Reprinted from “Clinical course and outcomes of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a single-centered, retrospective, observational study,” by X. Yang, Y. Yu, J. Xu, H. Shu, et al., 2020, The Lancet, 395(10229), p. 1056. Copyright 2020 by Elsevier Ltd.

Facts and figures of patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19

Figures from the above study show:

What health complications of COVID-19 cause you to die?

COVID-19 is well known for breathing problems, but other health complications also contribute towards the death from COVID-19. It is often a combination of these health problems that cause the body to fail and ultimately result in death.

COVID-19 Deaths (n=54) COVID-19 Survivors (n=137)
Sepsis 100% (54) 42% (58)
Respiratory failure 98% (53) 36% (50)
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) 93% (50) 7% (9)
Heart failure 52% (28) 12% (16)
Septic shock 70% (38) 0
Blood coagulation issues 50% (27) 7% (10)
Acute cardiac injury 59% (32) 0.7% (1)
Acute kidney injury 50% (27) 0.7% (1)
Secondary infection 50% (27) 0.7% (1)
Low protein blood levels 37% (20) 1.5% (2)
Acidosis (body fluids are too acid) 30% (16) 0.7% (1)

Related questions

Can blood tests be used to help determine the severity level of COVID-19 illness?

Lymphocyte levels: In COVID-19 survivors the blood lymphocyte counts are high and increase after day 7, when compared to patients that pass away who have severely low lymphocyte counts

D-dimer, high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I, serum ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase, and IL-6 levels: These were all clearly elevated in non-survivors compared to the survivors. These levels in non-survivors all increased dramatically after approximately 2 weeks.

Summary

References

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