‘Alarm’ over death rate in ethnic groups

Caution is needed when it comes to linking Covid-19 to an emerging inflammatory syndrome which is affecting some children, a top scientist has said.

Last week, the World Health Organisation asked its global network of clinicians to be on the alert for the rare phenomenon which causes a toxic shock-style inflammatory reaction.

The alert came after UK medics noticed the syndrome emerging in some hospitalised children who had also been infected with Covid-19.

A report published on Wednesday in medical journal The Lancet studied an “unprecedented cluster of eight children” who were admitted to hospital in April after exhibiting symptoms of toxic-shock syndrome.

According to the study, “four (of the) children had known family exposure to coronavirus” while all eight positive for Covid-19 antibodies.

However, Jon Cohen, emeritus professor of infectious diseases at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, said it was still far too early to jump to conclusions regarding the link between the syndrome and Covid-19.

In particular, Prof Cohen stressed that there is a wide variety of factors that could cause toxic-shock syndrome. tested

The Scottish Government has been urged to publish data on the impact of coronavirus on ethnic groups, after English and Welsh statistics suggested some were more at risk than others.

Labour MSP Anas Sarwar said the findings from south of the border would cause “considerable alarm” in Scotland where many members of ethnic minorities are working on the frontline.

New analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests black men and women are more than four times more likely to suffer a coronavirus-related death than white people south of the border. No data have yet been published for Scotland.

Black males in England and Wales are 4.2 times more likely, while black women are 4.3 times more likely to die after contracting the virus, after accounting for age.

People of Bangladeshi and Pakistani, Indian, and mixed ethnicities also had an increased risk of death involving Covid-19 compared with those of white ethnicity, the ONS found.

The analysis looked at how coronavirus has affected different ethnic groups from March 2 to April 10, registered by April 17.

As ethnicity is not recorded on death certificates, the ONS linked these to the 2011 Census, which includes self-reported ethnicity.

After taking account of other factors, such as health, disability, household composition and area deprivation, black men and women were 1.9 times more likely to die with Covid-19 than those of white ethnicity.

Bangladeshi and Pakistani males were 1.8 times more likely, and Bangladeshi and Pakistani females 1.6 times more likely, than white people when these factors were included.

The ONS found increased mortality rates due to Covid-19 for all ethnic minority groups, except for Chinese women.

UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was unaware of how such data are reported in Scotland. But his party had set up a group to look at the “disproportionate impact” of the coronavirus on the Bame community.

The ONS said a “substantial part of the difference in Covid-19 mortality between ethnic groups is explained by the different circumstances in which members of those groups are known to live, such as areas with socio-economic deprivation”.

It continued: “Geographic and socio-economic factors were accounting for over half of the difference in risk between males and females of black and white ethnicity.

“However, these factors do not explain all of the difference, suggesting that other causes are still to be identified.”

Professor Jon Cohen.