Mortality Rates of COVID-19 Is High among Biologically Male Compared To Biologically Female, Study Suggests

Jan, 2021 - By SMI

According to a new review article by the researchers of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have informed that mortality rate of COVID-19 is high in biologically male in comparison to biologically female individuals. In this review article researchers and clinicians investigated gender-based physiological differences impacting risk and susceptibility to COVID-19, the course and outcomes of the disease and its response to vaccines.

Vaishali R. Moulton from BIDMC stated, “The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a striking gender bias with increased mortality rates in men compared with women across the lifespan. Apart from behavioral and lifestyle factors that differ between men and women, sex chromosome-linked genes, sex hormones and the microbiome control aspects of the immune responses to infection and are potentially important biological contributors to the sex-based differences we're seeing in men and women in the context of COVID-19.”

In this study, researchers considered several demographic factors between men and women that prompts risk of mortality accordingly. In the case of Men, they smoke cigarettes, which propels the susceptibility to COVID-19, and are at higher risk to develop cardiovascular disease and hypertension, which are vital underlying comorbidities in COVID-19. In the case of women, they majorly have jobs in health care, thus increasing their exposure to the virus.

Moreover, researchers also suggested that according to several animal and human studies, it is proved that women exhibit stronger immune responses to infections, in comparison to males, and this further indicates that men are associated with increased susceptibility to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. In addition researchers also mentioned that gender is a crucial factor, however it is understudied and often overlooked.