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    Spreading faster, hitting harder – why young Brazilians are dying of Covid | Coronavirus | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/16/spreading-faster-hitting-harder-why-young-brazilians-are-dying-of-covid
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/248d01b68f9d9c9c0fb18beff820df37904dec47/0_48_4674_2805/master/4674.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    “I saw everything in there. Children, adults, young people, bodybuilders – the lot. All of them going through the same thing,” Castro recalled, rubbishing the idea that only elderly people were in danger. “If you’re a human being you’re at risk,” he said. “This disease is a total game of Russian roulette.”

    When Covid first hit Brazil last February it was, as elsewhere, considered mainly a threat to the ageing or infirm. A year later, as Brazil grapples with by far the most traumatic phase of its epidemic, a troubling trend has emerged, as intensive care units fill with younger patients such as Castro, some seemingly battling more severe forms of the disease. An unusually high number of infant fatalities has also been reported with more than 1,000 Brazilian babies dying last year compared with 43 in the US.

    Brazilians have been particularly shocked by the case of Paulo Gustavo, a 42-year-old television star who has spent the past month fighting for his life in a Rio ICU despite being previously fit and healthy. Last week, the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine said that for the first time, most Covid patients in ICU were under 40 – a finding echoed by frontline doctors.

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      Boulos said the vaccination of older Brazilians partly explained the increasing proportion of younger patients in ICU. “But there’s no doubt young people are being [physically] more affected by this new variant. It’s unquestionable.”

      “Sometimes … these young people will die after just a few hours or days with very acute, severe illnesses – and you won’t find any comorbidity or factor to explain why. It’s dramatic,” added Boulos, pointing to similar suspicions that the South African variant might be affecting the young more.

      Bressan suspected behavioural factors were also at play, with younger Brazilians more likely to be frequenting places where they might be exposed to greater doses of the virus, more often. “It’s younger people who are going out to work, to parties, restaurants and nightclubs,” said Bressan, adding that many of the patients she was now seeing in their 40s were domestic workers, cleaners, retail workers and waiters. “People who absolutely have to leave home to work.”

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