‘It is a very dire situation’: Atleast 600 nursing, retirement homes in Canada have coronavirus cases
By Kelly Grant, Les Perreaux, and Jill Mahoney
One of the reasons COVID-19 outbreaks have been difficult to control in nursing homes is the way it sometimes presents itself in the old and sick.
The elderly tend to have weakened immune systems, meaning they don’t always spike a high fever when their bodies struggle to fight off an infection, said Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and University Health Network in Toronto.
If they feel ill, he added, they aren’t necessarily capable of communicating it. He said 70 per cent of people in nursing homes have dementia. "The chances are they might not be able to recognize the symptoms they are having and be able to clearly articulate what they’re actually feeling,” Dr. Sinha said.