Turkish Medical Association: Turkey Does Not Report All Covid-19 Deaths

Workers with protective equipment at a morgue in Kocaeli. (Photo: Kocaeli Municipality)

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Turkey's method of reporting coronavirus deaths might cause the official death toll to be lower than actual numbers, according to a statement by the Turkish Medical Association (TTB).

The Health Ministry does not use the codes suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) to report the deaths, the TTB says. One of the codes, U07.1, is for patients whose polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were positive, and the other, U07.2, is for those who had the disease but died without a positive test.

Doctors say that computed tomography images and clinical findings of some patients show that they have Covid-19, although they have tested negative.

The TTB physicians report that death causes of patients without a positive PCR test are recorded as "viral pneumonia," "infectious disease" or "natural causes."

The İstanbul Medical Chamber also stated yesterday (April 8) that the official death toll was "much lower" than actual numbers due to the ministry's approach.

The TTB statement also notes that there is no parallel between the daily number of new cases and deaths, and the figures do not match the patterns observed in other countries. "Preparing documents correctly is essential to establish accurate and reliable information for epidemiological analysis and public health studies."

According to Turkey's Death Reporting System, U07.2 code is for "avian influenza infection," the statement notes.

"Not using these codes as recommended by international organizations such as WHO causes the number of deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic to be indicated lower, thereby creating the risk of not being able to accurately determine the extent of the problem and not adequately taking public health measures.

"We call on the Health Ministry to use the Covid-19 codes determined by WHO, to review the death records with this approach starting from February and to apply the verbal autopsy technique if necessary. If death records are opened, the Turkish Medical Association is ready to contribute to this process." (TP/VK)