@article {1511471, title = {Physician deaths from corona virus (COVID-19) disease}, journal = {Occup Med (Lond)}, volume = {70}, number = {5}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 07 17}, pages = {370-374}, abstract = {BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much morbidity and mortality to patients but also health care providers. AIMS: We tabulated the cases of physician deaths from COVID-19 associated with front-line work in hopes of mitigating future events. METHODS: On 15 April 2020, a Google internet search was performed using the keywords {\textquoteright}doctor{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteright}physician{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteright}death{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteright}COVID{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteright}coronavirus{\textquoteright} in English and Farsi, and Chinese using the Baidu search engine. The age, sex and medical speciality of physicians who died from COVID-19 in the line of duty were recorded. Individuals greater than 90 years of age were excluded. RESULTS: We found 278 physicians who died with COVID-19 infection, but complete details were missing for 108 individuals. The average age of the physicians was 63.7 years with a median age of 66 years, and 90\% were male (235/261). General practitioners and emergency room doctors (108/254), respirologists (5/254), internal medicine specialists (13/254) and anaesthesiologists (6/254) comprised 52\% of those dying. Two per cent of the deceased were epidemiologists (5/254), 2\% were infectious disease specialists (4/254), 6\% were dentists (16/254), 4\% were ENT (9/254) and 3\% were ophthalmologists (8/254). The countries with the most reported physician deaths were Italy (121/278; 44\%), Iran (43/278; 15\%), Philippines (21/278; 8\%), Indonesia (17/278; 6\%), China (16/278; 6\%), Spain (12/278; 4\%), USA (12/278; 4\%) and UK (11/278;4\%). CONCLUSIONS: Physicians from all specialities may die from COVID. Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a common cause of death. Consideration should be made to exclude older physicians from front-line work.}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Betacoronavirus, Coronavirus Infections, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pandemics, Physicians, Pneumonia, Viral}, issn = {1471-8405}, doi = {10.1093/occmed/kqaa088}, author = {Ing, E B and Xu, Q A and Salimi, A and Torun, N} }