Dr. Adrian Marinescu: obesity and middle age, risk factors for ICU admission in infectious diseases

Dr Adrian Marinescu, the director of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Prof. Dr. Matei Balș", warns that middle-aged individuals who are significantly overweight and have never had their health checked are at the greatest risk of requiring intensive care when they contract an infectious disease.

In a statement to Medika TV, the doctor explained: "The type of patient who ends up in intensive care is usually someone who may be middle-aged, overweight — I would say more accurately obese — and who has certainly never sought medical attention. This was the type of patient you may recall from pandemic reports, when they would say 'healthy 40-year-old patient'. No — that patient was only considered healthy because they had never been investigated. They were middle-aged, significantly overweight, and maintaining respiratory function and other bodily functions becomes much more difficult in such cases, so these are the most common patients we see."

Adrian Marinescu emphasises that, in reality, those patients deemed "healthy" were simply uninvestigated medically, rather than necessarily free of health problems.

According to the doctor, people with obesity face greater difficulty maintaining respiratory function and other bodily functions, making them more vulnerable when confronted with an infection. He also noted that excess weight places considerable strain on the internal organs, which is a factor that increases the risk of these patients requiring intensive care.