Bonn-based research team determine COVID-19 infection fatality ratein "Heinsberg Study"
The district of Heinsberg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is considered a hot spot for the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Following a carnival celebration, the district became one of the first areas in Germany where the pathogen spread and infected large quantities of people. As part of the study, a research team led by Prof. Dr. Hendrik Streeck and Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann from the University of Bonn and members of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 carried out a large study to precisely determine the infection fatality rate for the first time among other findings. The results of the study have been pre-published and are now presented to scientists and the public. Publication in a peer-reviewed journal is to follow.
"The results can be used to further improve models on the transmission behavior of the virus. Until now, basis for such data has been relatively uncertain," says co-author Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann, Director of the Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn and speaker of the Cluster of Excellence, ImmunoSensation2. The study also provides important indicators for further research on SARS-CoV-2 such as: the infection risk dependent on age, gender and pre-existing conditions; the increased severity of illness amidst special circumstances of a massive infection incident such as in Gangelt, or on the risk of infection within families.
Publication
Infection fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a German community with a super-spreading event Hendrik Streeck, Bianca Schulte, Beate M. Ku¨mmerer, Enrico Richter, Tobias Höller, Christine Fuhrmann, Eva Bartok, Ramona Dolscheid, Moritz Berger, Lukas Wessendorf, Monika Eschbach-Bludau, Angelika Kellings, Astrid Schwaiger, Martin Coenen, Per Hoffmann, Birgit Stoffel-Wagner, Markus M. Nöthen, Anna-Maria Eis-Hu¨binger, MartinExner, Ricarda Maria Schmithausen, Matthias Schmid and Gunther Hartmann, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.20090076v2
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