Altitude and excess mortality during COVID-19 pandemic in Peru

• Autores: Quevedo-Ramirez, Andres, Al-kassab-Córdova, Ali, Mendez-Guerra, Carolina, Cornejo-Venegas, Gonzalo, Alva-Chavez, Kenedy P.
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2020
• Institución: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
• Repositorio: UPC-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorioacademico.upc.edu.pe:10757/654524
• Enlace del recurso: http://hdl.handle.net/10757/654524
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Altitude; Coronavirus disease 2019; Geography; Human; Letter; Pneumonia

We have read with interest the short communication published by Segovia-Juarez et al., 2020 in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology establishing that high altitude reduces the infection rate of COVID-19 but not the case fatality rate in the Peruvian setting. We support this hypothesis, however there could be an important number of under registered deaths on account of a low rate of diagnostic tests performed per inhabitant and mostly in symptomatic patients (Pasquariello and Stranges, 2020).