ZCZC
BFF-27
HEALTH-VIRUS-IRAN-ELDERLY
103-year-old Iran woman survives coronavirus: report
TEHRAN, March 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A 103-year-old woman in Iran has
recovered after being infected with the new coronavirus, state media
reported, despite overwhelming evidence the elderly are most at risk from the
disease.
The unnamed woman had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan for
about a week, IRNA news agency said.
But she was “discharged after making a complete recovery”, Semnan
University of Medical Sciences head Navid Danayi was quoted as saying by IRNA
late Tuesday.
The woman was the second elderly patient in Iran to have survived the
disease.
The other was a 91-year-old man from Kerman, in the southeast of Iran, the
news agency said.
After being sick for three days, he recovered on Monday despite having pre-
existing medical conditions including high blood pressure and asthma, it
added.
The report did not say how the pair were treated.
Since Iran announced its first deaths on February 19, the novel coronavirus
has spread to all of the country’s 31 provinces and killed nearly 1,000
people.
The elderly are the most vulnerable to the disease, which first emerged in
China late last year.
The World Health Organization this month estimated the novel coronavirus
kills 3.4 percent of all those infected.
But for people aged over 80 the fatality rate was 21.9 percent, according
to a report the WHO carried out with the Chinese authorities.
BSS/AFP/RY/1702 hrs