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Workers prepare a body before a funeral procession at a special morgue for people who died from COVID-19 in the central Israeli city of Holon, near Tel Aviv, January 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
In a study conducted in a Galilee hospital, 26 percent of vitamin D-deficient coronavirus patients died, while among other patients the figure was at 3%. «This is a very, very significant discrepancy, which represents a big clue that starting the disease with very low vitamin D leads to increased mortality and more severity,» Dr. He analyzed data on 1,176 patients admitted to the Galilee Medical Center, 253 of whom had vitamin D levels on record, for a study that has been published online but not yet been peer-reviewed. Half of those with recorded levels were vitamin D-deficient. Most of them measured vitamin D levels once patients were already sick, which can complicate interpretation of the results.
Israel’s centralized health record-keeping has allowed Bar Ilan researchers to easily access patient vitamin levels that are on record from before infection. This data led to an important study that lauded vitamin D’s prospects for fighting the disease last year, as well as the new study. «We saw that vitamin D deficiency is an independent factor that significantly influences the status of the patient». Dror added that the fact that such a large proportion of patients were vitamin D-deficient in Israel, despite the abundance of sunshine, highlights the value of people around the world monitoring and potentially boosting their levels.
Source: Nathan Jeffay | The Times of Israel
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