Is Covid-19 more fatal for men than women?

While experts and scientists are ramping up effort to arrive at the potential Covid-19 vaccine, a vast body of research exists and focusses on the other aspects of the contagious disease and how it is affecting the world.

Experts have now come to conclude that Covid-19 is posing a greater threat to the male population as opposed to females. More men are getting infected by the disease as opposed to women.

Experts also believe that the biological differences between the two sexes should be taken into consideration for developing treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.

“Around the world, on every continent, we’re observing that men are significantly more likely to be hospitalized with severe Covid-19, and men are also significantly more likely to die from Covid-19. Some studies are showing the risks are twofold for men. Women are contracting the virus at the same rates as men, but they are more likely to recover,” noted a research entry by Johns Hopkins University, which also calls for a deeper investigation.

The research points to the fact that women typically have a more rapid and robust immune response to viruses than men which “may be one factor contributing to female-biased protection against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19”.

“There are data from early outbreaks in Wuhan, China, for example, that show women clear the virus more quickly than men,” the piece reads.

Differences in sexes also affect immunity. “We have data for other viruses illustrating that sex differences in immunity are caused by genetic as well as hormonal differences between women and men,” it stated.

Another recently conducted study says that as of May 20, 2020, males shared a higher burden (66 percent) of Covid-19 infections than females (34 percent) but the infection is more or less evenly distributed in under-five as well as elderly age groups.

Males are at a greater disadvantage than females, they said, adding that it is unclear whether males experience a higher risk of mortality throughout the age-spectrum, or if there are sex-related differences in survival risk.

“While males have a higher overall burden (66 percent) of Covid-19 infections than females, the infection is evenly distributed in the under-five age group and, to some extent, even among the elderly age groups (particularly 70+ years),” the scientists wrote in the study which was published in the Journal of Global Health Science.

Coronavirus has infected over 8 million people across the globe while over 4.6 people have lost their lives to the deadly contagion.

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