Malnutrition, an unknown disease that also affects coronavirus patients

It is an unrecognized disease that kills in silence. The general public, and even some doctors, pay little attention, but malnutrition can kill. A collective of health workers and activists wants to warn this week about the dangers of malnutrition, which affects a alarming proportion of hospitalized, elderly patients, is now also patients with Covid-19.

This pathology, which manifests itself in sudden severe weight loss (more than 5% in a month) among the sick or the elderly, collides with a form of disbelief, because “people do not understand how one can be malnourished in a society of abundance”, underlines Jérôme Guedj, one of the coordinators of the first “national week of malnutrition“, from 12 to 19 November.

According to the organizational collective, the phenomenon would affect 25% of the elderly in need of home help, and also 30-40% of nursing home residents. TO Hospital, 30% of patients are undernourished.

Rapid weight loss should always be a concern

Among them, cancer patients are particularly concerned, but also victims of a severe form of Covid-19. According to a study currently being published, which involved 403 patients hospitalized for coronavirus, the average weight loss would reach 6.5 kilos. Joseph-Robert Iannone, 67, experienced a much more dramatic weight loss. He lost 17 kilos in one month, or 18% of its weight, during the long stay in Grenoble during the first epidemic wave, in spring.

After 20 days in intensive care, including a week in an artificial coma, “I was deathly thin, my wife just recognized me,” says the 60-year-old, who took six months to regain his original weight. “I, who was quite strong, had all my muscles loose. I had to learn to walk again, to climb stairs,” he continues.

While it’s not always that spectacular, rapid weight loss should always be a concern, underlines Professor Éric Fontaine, nutritionist and president of the Collective for the fight against malnutrition. In fact, the patient who goes without food will essentially lose muscle rather than fat. The phenomenon is therefore alarming, even for obese people or overweight, why this will alter its infectious defenses.

Only 19% of French people identify it as a disease

“Very badly taught, even to doctors“This disease is also little known by the patients themselves, deplores Dr. Fontaine. Some are not only unaware of the severity of the problem, but are also happy to lose weight.

According to a recent Ifop survey conducted for the collective and the Jean Jaurès Foundation, 49% of French people wrongly think that malnutrition is a “consequence of famine”, and only 19% identify it as a disease. Most respondents think, even wrongly, that it is normal to lose weight when you have a serious illness or as you get older.

OR, “Getting old doesn’t make you lose weight,” insists Agathe Raynaud-Simon, geriatrician in Paris. On the other hand, the older you get, the more various pathologies make you lose your appetite, he explains. After the episodes of the great heat wave, the general public has learned that “the elderly find it difficult to perceive the sensation of thirst, but it is also true for hunger”, continues the geriatrician.

First week of awareness on malnutrition

“The difficulty is that you have to be a little pushy, a feeding people who are not hungry“, according to Professor Raynaud-Simon. For this, good advice is to enrich the diet without increasing the size of the dish, for example by adding butter or an egg in a wort. However,” in nursing homes, we lack the staff and time “to pay attention to these details.

In your opinion, malnutrition can also affect the elderly who have remained at home, especially in these times of confinement. “Many isolated people at home have lost their appetite due to stress, isolation, fear of going out shopping,” says the Professor.

During this first week of awareness of malnutrition in France, the emphasis will be on raising public awareness, the Covid crisis requires, through online communication and in the press, but also thanks to direct actions in the 500 Ephad of the “Maison Gourmande et Responsable” operation.

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