Melissa Cunningham
March 5, 2020
The Age
Baby boomers are being urged to avoid travelling overseas as mounting evidence suggests they are among the most likely age group to experience severe illness if they fall ill with coronavirus.
Global scientific literature is increasingly pointing to people aged 60 and over, especially those with underlying chronic illnesses such as heart or lung diseases, as being at the highest risk of critical illness and death from COVID-19.
Early studies have also suggested older men are at greater risk, but scientists are yet to determine why.
As Australia watches ominous scenes of the global outbreak unfolding from afar, images of some of the world’s busiest tourist attractions show them eerily deserted.
Governments around the world are scrambling to introduce measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, which is growing globally even as transmission in China, where the virus originated at the end of last year, continues to show signs of declining.
So, with a coronavirus pandemic imminent, what is the risk for older Australians who plan on travelling overseas in the coming months?
Associate Professor Ian Mackay from the University of Queensland, who has worked on diagnostics for the COVID-19 coronavirus, urged older Australians to reconsider travelling overseas.
“Personally, my thought would be not to go overseas right now until I could see how this was playing out,” he said.
“I don’t like to specifically dictate what people should do [but] I would be asking questions like if I got severely sick and needed to go to hospital would I be happy to deal with the healthcare system in that country compared to the treatment I could receive in Australia?”
About 3.4 per cent of people with COVID-19 globally have died making it more deadly than influenza.
Italy is taking increasingly desperate measures to stop Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak. It’s now closed all schools and universities, and is prepared to ban almost all public gatherings altogether.
The risk of dying is dramatically higher among patients in their 70s and 80s, most likely because many of those people have pre-existing health issues, Associate Professor Mackay said.
“It’s looking very much like its more serious for older people than flu at the moment,” Professor Mackay said.
“We are not really sure why the older group is more at risk, and if perhaps it is due to an immunological condition,” Professor Mackay said.
“It could also even be due to past exposure to other coronaviruses which cause their bodies to have an exaggerated response to coronavirus.”
Associate Professor Adam Kamradt-Scott, an expert in the spread and control of infectious diseases at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, also believes that boomers should rethink their travel plans.
“Unless people in that age group have a real urgent need to travel internationally it would probably be more sensible to delay until we see how this continues to evolve,” he said.
“Obviously, this virus is transmissible so people need to weigh up their own individual risk appetite as to whether or not they’re prepared to travel.”
Associate Professor Kamradt-Scott urged Australians, however, to keep perspective.
“We have a global population of around seven billion people and at the moment we have a little over 90,000 cases,” Associate Professor Kamradt-Scott said. “Right now, the risk of individual exposure is quite low but there is still a risk.”
He conceded this threat could heighten dramatically if the disease spreads rapidly, particularly in countries with less robust healthcare systems.
“If you do plan on travelling there are still many things you can do to reduce your risk of exposure like engaging in regular hand-washing,” he said.
“This is particularly important in environments like aeroplanes when you are travelling for 17 plus hours because obviously there are a lot of people on people together using the toilets and that sort of thing.”
Associate Professor Kamradt-Scott said the virus was not airborne but it was being spread by tiny droplets released when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
“This means people have to be coughing and sneezing in close proximity to you,” he said.
“Usually within a metre.”
Symptoms of coronavirus range from a mild cough to fever and pneumonia.
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