If someone has high blood pressure, they have two times the risk of dying from COVID-19 if they become sick, a new study shows.
The new study, published by the European Heart Journal this week was conducted by a team of international researchers.
"Soon after we started to treat Covid-19 patients in early February in Wuhan, we noticed that nearly half of the patients who died had high blood pressure, which was a much higher percentage compared to those with only mild Covid-19 symptoms," researcher Ling Tao said in a statement.
While it had been documented already that patients with high blood pressure would likely experience more serious symptoms, this study documented the severity of the risk.
The researchers studied nearly 3,000 patients who have been treated for COVID-19. About 30% of them had high blood pressure.
While 1.1% of patients with normal blood pressure died from the virus, 4% with high blood pressure died from COVID-19, the researchers found.
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“It is important that patients with high blood pressure realize that they are at increased risk of dying from Covid-19. They should take good care of themselves during this pandemic and they need more attention if they are infected with the coronavirus,” researcher Fei Li told CNN health.
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