UAE's youth need to step up in fight against coronavirus, frontline medics say

Two senior doctors who recovered from Covid-19 spoke out, after officials said people aged 20 to 40 account for the majority of cases

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates - Reporter: N/A. News. Health. Photo Project. GP and ER doctor Dr Ashar Jamal at Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah. Photo project on hospital staff that Covid-19, recovered and Show more

Younger people need to take more responsibility to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as there are concerns they are being infected at higher rates than other groups.

As well as urging young adults to take precautions against contracting the deadly virus, doctors in the Emirates said youth is no guarantee that Covid-19 symptoms will be mild.

They recounted cases where young adults developed severe pneumonia and were put on a ventilator after falling ill.

The warnings came as the Emirates, like many nations to have eased their lockdown restrictions, reported a surge in cases.

Daily cases have hovered around 400 in recent days – twice the daily tally reported a week ago.

“I’ve seen a lot of patients in their mid-twenties, mid-thirties and they develop pneumonia,” said Dr Ashar Jamal, an emergency doctor at Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah.

“I’ve seen young patients getting ill with pneumonia and getting admitted to ICU [intensive care unit] and ventilated.”

Dr Jamal, who is 32, was found to have Covid-19 and was in hospital for a week with pneumonia and fever. He recovered and is back at work.

As is widely known, older people tend to be at greater risk from the coronavirus because, for example, they are likely to have a weaker immune system and more underlying health conditions.

The medical journal The Lancet reported that, "Overall younger people develop severe symptoms of Covid-19 less frequently than adults, and are at lower risk for hospitalisation and life-threatening complications."

Perhaps as a result, younger people tend, according to reports from around the world, to make less effort to distance themselves from others or take other preventive measures, so transmission among younger groups has become relatively more significant.

UAE officials on Saturday expressed concern that 20 to 40-year-olds are now the most heavily infected group because they believe their age means they are not at risk.

Government officials and scientists in places, including Japan and several US states, concur that infection rates are higher among younger people partly because they are more likely to have closer contact with others.

In Australia, a new anti-coronavirus television and radio advertisement targeting youth was launched this month after analysis showed 20 to 29-year-olds were the most heavily infected age group, even if many did not develop symptoms.

Yet some younger individuals, ranging from children through to younger adults, have become seriously ill and even died.

Among these were children and adolescents who developed what the World Health Organisation described as a “multisystem inflammatory condition” that resulted in multiple organ failure and death. Some were thought to have had a deadly overreaction of the immune system.

Dr Jamal said it was vital that younger people took precautions against the virus to protect not only themselves, but others around them, too.

“Even if there’s a chance they don’t develop symptoms, they may go home and infect their parents, their grandparents and the children at home,” he said.

“The young group are usually socialising a lot – going out for shisha, hanging out at malls. We need them to do their job and act responsibly and help us flatten the curve.

“It’s imperative that this age group should take this virus seriously and maintain social distancing, hand washing and [measures] promoted by the Ministry of Health.”

Calls for younger people to take precautions were echoed by Dr Davinder Pal Singh, a cardiologist at NMC Royal Hospital in Dubai, who was also diagnosed with Covid-19 several months ago.

He, too, has seen young people who have developed “severe” symptoms after contracting the coronavirus, although he said typically they recover well. He described younger people as being “equally important” in preventing the disease from spreading.

“Older people, mostly they stay at home. Younger people, they go out … younger people travel. They’re responsible for the majority of the transmission,” said Dr Singh.

He also advised social distancing, hand sanitiser use and “not ignoring the value of masks”.