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 <front>
  <journal-meta>
   <journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">Ulutas Med J</journal-id>
   <journal-title-group>
    <journal-title>The Ulutas Medical Journal</journal-title>
    <abbrev-journal-title>Ulutas Med J</abbrev-journal-title>
   </journal-title-group>
   <issn pub-type="ppub">2149-0430</issn>
   <issn pub-type="epub">2149-388X</issn>
   <publisher>
    <publisher-name>Hayriye Zehra Ulutaş</publisher-name>
   </publisher>
  </journal-meta>
  <article-meta>
   <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5455/umj.20200513022911</article-id>
   <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">106876</article-id>
   <article-categories>
    <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
     <subject>Letter to the Editor</subject>
    </subj-group>
    <subj-group subj-group-type="subject">
     <subject>Infectious diseases/communicable diseases</subject>
    </subj-group>
   </article-categories>
   <title-group>
    <article-title>Protecting Doctors Aged Greater than 50 Years from COVID-19</article-title>
   </title-group>
   <contrib-group>
    <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
     <contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid" authenticated="false">https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0235-9060</contrib-id>
     <name name-style="western">
      <surname>Chao</surname>
      <given-names>Chien-Ming</given-names>
     </name>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Conceptualization" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/conceptualization/">Conceptualization</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Data curation" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/data-curation/">Data curation</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Formal analysis" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/formal-analysis/">Formal analysis</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Funding acquisition" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/funding-acquisition/">Funding acquisition</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Investigation" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/investigation/">Investigation</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Methodology" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/methodology/">Methodology</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Project administration" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/project-administration/">Project administration</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Resources" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/resources/">Resources</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Software" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/software/">Software</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Supervision" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/supervision/">Supervision</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Validation" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/validation/">Validation</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Visualization" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/visualization/">Visualization</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Writing – original draft" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/writing-original-draft/">Writing – original draft</role>
     <role vocab="credit" vocab-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/" vocab-term="Writing – review &amp; editing" vocab-term-identifier="https://credit.niso.org/contributor-roles/writing-review-editing/">Writing – review &amp; editing</role>
     <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref>
    </contrib>
    <aff id="aff1">
     <label>1</label>
     <institution-wrap>
      <institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/03967fe87</institution-id>
      <institution>Tainan city</institution>
     </institution-wrap>
    </aff>
   </contrib-group>
   <pub-date publication-format="electronic" date-type="pub" iso-8601-date="2020-06-19">
    <day>19</day>
    <month>06</month>
    <year>2020</year>
   </pub-date>
   <pub-date publication-format="print" date-type="collection">
    <year>2020</year>
   </pub-date>
   <volume>6</volume>
   <issue>2</issue>
   <fpage>101</fpage>
   <lpage>102</lpage>
   <history>
    <date date-type="received" iso-8601-date="2020-04-08">
     <day>08</day>
     <month>04</month>
     <year>2020</year>
    </date>
    <date date-type="rev-recd" iso-8601-date="2020-05-13">
     <day>13</day>
     <month>05</month>
     <year>2020</year>
    </date>
    <date date-type="accepted" iso-8601-date="2020-06-04">
     <day>04</day>
     <month>06</month>
     <year>2020</year>
    </date>
   </history>
   <permissions>
    <copyright-statement>© 2020 The Author(s)</copyright-statement>
    <copyright-year>2020</copyright-year>
    <license>
     <ali:license_ref>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/</ali:license_ref>
     <license-p>This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.</license-p>
    </license>
   </permissions>
   <self-uri xlink:href="https://www.ulutasmedicaljournal.com/?mno=106876"/>
   <self-uri content-type="pdf" xlink:href="https://www.ulutasmedicaljournal.com/pdf/106876.pdf"/>
   <abstract>
    <p>Glynn raised the concern about the need for protecting workers aged 60-69 years from COVID-19. In addition to the general population, we think this issue is important within the healthcare system. However, we wonder whether this estimation can be applied in the healthcare system. To answer this question, we used the same model to estimate the distribution of death according to the doctor's age group. First, we found that 40% and 30% of deaths are in the 70+ and 60-69 year group. Second, after excluding the doctors aged more than 70 years, it estimated that 48% of deaths developed in the 60-69 years age group. Both of these findings were consistent with Glynn¡'s findings and suggest that doctors aged over 60 years should be protected. Moreover, we also noted that 31.4% of deaths were estimated to occur in the 50-59-year groups in the group aged less than 70 years. This ratio was higher in the analysis of the general population by Glynn, in which 25% of death developed in the group aged 50-59 years. Overall, it suggested that doctors aged greater than 50 years should need protection within the hospital in this COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid overload of the healthcare system, which was associated with the poor outcome of critical COVID-19 patients and prevent the death of aged physicians, appropriate allocation of physicians' works according to their specificity and age should be conducted to enhance the effectiveness of healthcare resource.</p>
   </abstract>
   <kwd-group kwd-group-type="author">
    <kwd>COVID-19</kwd>
    <kwd>doctor</kwd>
    <kwd>health staff</kwd>
   </kwd-group>
   <funding-group>
    <funding-statement>Funding information was not reported in the published version of this article.</funding-statement>
   </funding-group>
  </article-meta>
 </front>
 <body>
  <p id="b-1">
   <bold>Dear Editor, </bold>
Health, in one recent study(   <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">1</xref>
), Glynn raised the concern about the need of protecting worker aged 60-69 year from COVID-19. In addition to general population, we think this issue is important within healthcare system. However, we wonder whether this estimation can be applied in the healthcare system. To answer this question, we used the same model (   <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">2</xref>
,   <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">3</xref>
), to estimate the distribution of death according to the doctors’ age group. First, we found that 40% and 30% of deaths are in the 70+ and 60- 69 year group. Second, after excluding the doctors aged more than 70 years, it estimated that 48% of deaths developed in the 60-69- year age group (Table-1). Both of these findings were consistent with Glynn’s findings and suggest that doctors aged over 60 years should be protected. Moreover, we also noted that 31.4% of deaths was estimated to occur in the 50-59-year groups in the group aged less than 70 years. This ratio was higher in the analysis of general population by Glynn, in which 25% of death developed in the group aged 50-59 years. Overall, it suggested that doctors aged greater than 50 years should need protection within the hospital in this COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid overload of healthcare system, which was associated the poor outcome of critical COVID-19 patients and prevent the death of aged physicians, appropriate allocation of physicians’ works according the specificity and age (&lt;50 vs ≥50 years) should be conducted to enhance effectiveness of healthcare resource.</p>
  <table-wrap id="tbl-1" position="float">
   <label>Table 1</label>
   <caption>
    <title>Estimated deaths by age-group if doctors in UK are infected with SSARS-CoV-2</title>
   </caption>
   <graphic xlink:href="tbl-1.png">
    <alt-text>Table 1: Estimated deaths by age-group if doctors in UK are infected with SSARS-CoV-2</alt-text>
   </graphic>
  </table-wrap>
 </body>
 <back>
  <ref-list>
   <title>References</title>
   <ref id="ref1">
    <label>1</label>
    <mixed-citation publication-type="journal">Glynn JR. Protecting workers aged 60-69 years from COVID-19. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020 Apr 16. pii: S1473-3099(20)30311-X. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30311-X</mixed-citation>
   </ref>
   <ref id="ref2">
    <label>2</label>
    <mixed-citation publication-type="journal">R Verity, LC Okell, I Dorigatti, et al. Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis. Lancet Infect Dis 2020 March 30</mixed-citation>
   </ref>
   <ref id="ref3">
    <label>3</label>
    <mixed-citation publication-type="journal">https://www.statista.com/statistics/698278/registered-doctors -united-kingdom-uk-by-age/ accessed on April 28, 2020</mixed-citation>
   </ref>
  </ref-list>
 </back>
</article>
