Beijing, CHINA
The coronavirus is on the cusp of
becoming a global pandemic and experts say that, if it does, older people and
men could be most at risk for serious illness and death.
Men have
died from coronavirus at nearly twice the rate as women, and the virus has been
shown to sicken and kill older folks at a greater rate than young people,
according to data from China.
The
coronavirus death rate among men in China stands at 2.8%, compared with 1.7%
among women, according to a report last week from the Chinese Center for
Disease Control and Prevention.
About 80%
of people who have died from the virus in China were over 60 years of age,
China's National Health Commission has reported. Studies in The Lancet found
an average age of 55 among Chinese citizens who've developed pneumonia as a
result of coronavirus infection.
It's too
soon to know exactly why this happens, but experts say a combination of gender
and age differences could be affecting how well some people respond to
infection with the virus.
There
have been nearly 90 000 confirmed coronavirus infections around the world and
more than 3 000 deaths, according to the latest data.
China is
the epicenter of the potential pandemic with more than 2 900 deaths.
Generally,
young children and seniors are the age groups most severely affected by
influenza and other viral infections, said Dr Sean O'Leary, an associate
professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Colorado School
of Medicine.
Kids have
young immune systems that are only beginning to learn how to protect against
infection, while older people have immune systems that are winding down and
becoming less effective, experts say.
And according
to Dr Lona Mody, associate division chief of geriatric and palliative care
medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, "Older adults, we
know, are more susceptible to all infections in general and viral infections in
particular because our immune systems become less powerful as we age. This
makes us more prone to dangerous viral strains."
Seniors
also have bodies that are more prone to chronic illnesses caused by the wear
and tear of ageing, O'Leary said, and that could be the crucial factor that
leaves older people more at risk for serious illness and death from coronavirus
than kids.
Conditions
like arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and cancer are known to leave the body
less able to cope with infection, the experts explained.
"We
certainly see more impact from viruses in people who have some kind of
underlying chronic disease," O'Leary said. "Children tend to do
better with these diseases than older adults because, in general, they tend to
be a healthier population."
Women
also appear to have an immune advantage over men when it comes to coronavirus,
and this could be because women tend to have more robust immune systems than
men.
Dr Greg
Poland is a vaccine researcher and infectious disease specialist with the Mayo
Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. He said, "In general, females respond
better to infectious diseases than males. That's even known with influenza
virus.
"Men
are sicker than women when they get influenza."
The
immune system in females is so primed that they are far more susceptible to
autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis than men, Dr Janine
Clayton, director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the US
National Institutes of Health, told The New York Times. Nearly four
of five people with autoimmune diseases are women.
But
differences between men and women extend beyond biology and into lifestyle, and
that might also influence the risk of a coronavirus infection becoming deadly,
the experts added.
For
example, men in China smoke at a much higher rate than women, research has
shown. More than half of Chinese men smoke, compared with around 3% of women.
It turns
out smoking activates a receptor used by the coronavirus to infect human cells,
ACE-2, Poland said.
"That
is the speculation behind why we are seeing such an unreasonably high severe
case and fatality rate inside China," Poland noted.
If this
is so, then gender differences in coronavirus illness and death might not be as
striking in the United States, where around 15% of men smoke compared with 12%
of women.
Poland
and the other experts cautioned that it's too soon to know whether any of these
early differences will bear out over time, and whether these explanations are
anything more than guesswork.
"We're
building the airplane while we're flying it," Poland said of the research
response to coronavirus.
No comments:
Post a Comment