Men and women are equal risks of contracting the novel coronavirus but as per a study, men are likely to suffer severe effects of the virus and die. The study also suggests that older male patients with COVID-19 may need additional supportive care.
While the elderly and those with certain pre-existing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure were reported in earlier research to be at greater risk of death due to COVID-19, the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health examined gender differences in patients infected with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
In the study, scientists assessed trends among COVID-19 patients who died. They said “Early in January we noticed that the number of men dying from COVID-19 was higher than women.
“This raised a question: are men more susceptible to getting or dying from COVID-19? We found that no-one had measured gender differences in COVID-19 patients, and so began investigating,” he added.
According to the researchers, it is still not completely understood why some people are more severely affected by the virus than others.
Based on their observations they said that older men require more care. Among the COVID-19 patients, the scientists noted in the study that older people and those with specific underlying conditions tended to have more severe disease and were more likely to die.
The experts also said the age and numbers of infected men and women were similar, but men tended to have more severe disease. The scientists also found that over 70 percent of the patients who died were men, meaning that men may have almost 2.5 times the death rate of women.
They said being male could be a significant risk factor for worse disease severity, regardless of age.
However, the scientists said further research is needed to determine why men with COVID-19 fare worse than women.