In Hungary the number of fatalities caused by coronavirus infection in relation to the total population is not high, the head infectology physician of the Szent László Hospital said at the Thursday online press conference of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic.

János Szlávik added that in Hungary the number of fatalities as well as the number of incidences are similar to those of neighbouring countries.

The number of active patients is continuously decreasing; however, as the progress of the disease is slow, there are still many people being treated in intensive care units. Also at present, there is a patient who has been on assisted ventilation for four weeks, the expert said.

The head physician highlighted that in the country more than ten thousand persons may have undergone coronavirus infection, and in 80 per cent of confirmed cases, patients have displayed mild symptoms or have been asymptomatic.

He said more than a thousand persons have required hospitalisation, and more than five hundred patients have died of complications brought on by the virus as the disease attacks not only the lungs, but also the brain, the heart and the kidneys, and this – combined with the patient’s underlying illnesses – may prove to be fatal.

Mr Szlávik repeated that in children coronavirus infection causes mild symptoms; they have not witnessed severe symptoms in children under the age of ten.

Regarding the administration of the drug hydroxychloroquine in Hungary, Mr Szlávik said, keeping track of the latest scientific results, they have decided not to start treating patients with hydroxychloroquine in Hungary.

He added that as there is no registered medicine for coronavirus infection, the therapies which they have used so far were based primarily on experiences in China. He said at the beginning of the epidemic, the active ingredient of an antimalarial drug indeed formed an integral part of coronavirus infection therapy; “we have used it in a high number of patients, successfully”.

The head physician said in Hungary they have detected the side-effects observed in elderly patients suffering from heart conditions in one instance, and this is negligible compared with the number of patients who have been treated with this drug. Mr Szlávik said “it is likely to have been administered only to patients who developed no side-effects”.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister / MTI)