Olympic gold medallist swimmer Cameron van der Burgh revealed on Twitter the toll the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) took on his body. The fit 31-year-old, by age and by health, is statistically in a group with the lowest possibility of mortality due to COVID-19. But, the effects on his physique caused by the virus, he says, are immense. He is a six-time world champion and a four-time Commonwealth champion.
2/ I have been struggling with Covid-19 for 14 days today. By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs(no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at risk demographic)
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
“I have been struggling with Covid-19 for 14 days today. By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs (no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at risk demographic),” he wrote on Twitter.
“Although the most severe symptoms (extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours. The loss in body conditioning has been immense and can only feel for the athletes that contract Covid-19 as they will suffer a great loss of current conditioning through the last training cycle. Infection closer to competition being the worst,” he wrote.
A study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that those above the age of 80 had the highest fatality rate due to the novel coronavirus among all age groups—the CFR stood at 14.8 per cent. No deaths occurred in the group aged 9 years and younger, but cases in those aged 70 to 79 years had an 8.0 per cent CFR. Most infected patients were between 30 and 79 years of age (87 per cent), 1 per cent were aged 9 years or younger, 1 per cent were aged 10 to 19 years, and 3 per cent were aged 80 years or older.
Those with heart diseases, diabetes and other conditions run the risk of higher fatality rates. While patients who reported no pre-existing or co-morbid conditions had a case fatality rate of 0.9 per cent, patients with co-morbid conditions had much higher rates—10.5 per cent for those with cardiovascular disease, 7.3 per cent for diabetes, 6.3 per cent for chronic respiratory disease, 6.0 per cent for hypertension, and 5.6 per cent for cancer.
