COVID-19 mortality rates higher among men than women

Date:
September 22, 2020
Source:
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Summary:
A new review article shows people who are biologically male
are dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate than people who are
biologically female.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new review article from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)
shows people who are biologically male are dying from COVID-19 at
a higher rate than people who are biologically female. In a review
published in Frontiers in Immunology, researcher-clinicians at BIDMC
explore the sex-based physiological differences that may affect risk
and susceptibility to COVID-19, the course and clinical outcomes of the
disease and response to vaccines.


==========================================================================
"The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a striking gender bias with increased mortality rates in men compared with women across the lifespan," said corresponding author Vaishali R. Moulton, MD, PhD, an assistant professor
of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology
at BIDMC.

"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." Moulton and
co-authors Nirupa Gadi, Samantha C. Wu and Allison P. Spihlman, all
medical students in Moulton's laboratory at BIDMC, acknowledge that
demographic differences between men and women predispose each group
to risk in different ways. Men, for example, are more likely to smoke cigarettes, a known risk factor for severe COVID-19, and are more likely
to have cardiovascular disease and hypertension, important underlying comorbidities in COVID-19; while women are more likely to hold jobs in
health care, increasing their potential exposure to the virus.

Nonetheless, many animal and human studies demonstrate that females
tend to mount stronger immune responses to infections than males, a
trait that may be linked to increased susceptibility to inflammatory
and autoimmune diseases.

Reviewing the scientific literature regarding sex-based differences in
cells of the immune system, X chromosome-linked genetics, sex hormones,
the ACE- 2 receptor and the microbiome, the scientists conclude that sex
is a crucial yet understudied and often overlooked variable in research
related to immunity and infectious disease.

"Vaccine-related research and clinical trials, including those currently underway for COVID-19, must include sex as a key variable when measuring
and reporting outcomes," said Moulton, who is also an assistant professor
of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Understanding these factors will
both help us better understand COVID-19 and guide the design of effective therapies and vaccine strategies towards sex-based personalized medicine
moving forward."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Beth_Israel_Deaconess_Medical_Center. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nirupa Gadi, Samantha C. Wu, Allison P. Spihlman, Vaishali
R. Moulton.

What's Sex Got to Do With COVID-19? Gender-Based Differences in
the Host Immune Response to Coronaviruses. Frontiers in Immunology,
2020; 11 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.02147 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200922135751.htm

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