The mortality of patients with Covid-19 in the intensive care units of the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) is estimated between 25% and 35%, and not 43% as claimed by Didier Raoult, said Monday its managing director Martin Hirsch.
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According to data from Si-Vic, the Ministry of Health's system for monitoring patients in the event of an exceptional health situation, the mortality rate in intensive care " stands today at public assistance at 25% ", he indicated before the commission of inquiry of the National Assembly on the management of the coronavirus crisis.
According to another source, the cohort of patients formed by the AP-HP to follow the patients cared for in its 39 hospitals, " we estimate this rate between 31% and 35%, " he added. The microbiologist Didier Raoult, director of the IHU Mediterranean-Infection of Marseille, had affirmed before the same commission on June 24: " the mortality in the resuscitations (of the AP-HP) (...) is 43%. With us, it is 16% ”, based on a report from the AP-HP crisis unit dated April 14.
" Serious accusations " Raoult
Martin Hirsch confirmed the authenticity of this document but pointed out that it dated almost three months ago and was therefore obsolete. He added that at the time, according to this same document, about half of the patients hospitalized in intensive care were still admitted there, and that the outcome of their illness (death or recovery) was not yet known. " No one can give the final death rate today: we still have patients who are in intensive care and whom we hope to save, " he insisted.
The boss of the AP-HP had protested from June 26 against the statements of Didier Raoult, in a letter to the President of the National Assembly in which he believed that his words " seem to be akin to false testimony ". " My role is not to police the percentages, but if it is to (influence) the commission of inquiry on the basis of biased and partial data, it is my role to react quickly, " he said. he declared Monday before the deputies.
Professor Raoult laid " serious charges " by " implying that we would be criminals since we would have let patients die (...) because we would not have given the drug ", the hydroxychloroquine promoted by the Marseille researcher, insisted Martin Hirsch. He also pointed out that the " comparisons " of mortality rates were only relevant if they took into account the number of patients admitted, the severity of the symptoms or the proportion of elderly patients.