{"id":41964,"date":"2020-04-14T22:41:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T19:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.163.207.100\/~timesku1\/news\/?p=41964"},"modified":"2020-04-14T22:42:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T19:42:19","slug":"why-covid-19-infections-affect-people-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/why-covid-19-infections-affect-people-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Covid-19 infections affect people differently"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of what makes the Covid-19 pandemic so unnerving\u00a0is that it\u2019s hard to know how the virus will affect any individual person. Though most people infected with the coronavirus \u2014\u00a081%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) \u2014 will present with few or mild symptoms, others may find themselves relying on a ventilator to breathe, or no longer breathing at all.<\/p>\n

But as researchers continue to study the disease, they have started to understand which populations it tends to hit the hardest. Here are the factors that increase a person\u2019s chances of having severe symptoms from Covid-19, at least as researchers understand them now.<\/p>\n

Age<\/h2>\n

Researchers in China were the\u00a0first to determine\u00a0that people over 60 are at the highest risk of severe symptoms from Covid-19. Different studies define severe or critical symptoms a bit differently, but they often include trouble breathing (based on frequency of breathing, blood oxygen levels, and duration of the symptoms), fever, and confusion. Basically, if symptoms seem to require immediate medical attention, they\u2019re severe.<\/p>\n

In the US, 31-59% of adults ages 75 to 84 diagnosed with the virus had symptoms severe enough to be hospitalized, compared to 14-21% of confirmed patients ages 20 to 44,\u00a0a<\/a>ccording to the CDC.<\/p>\n

This is why the CDC encourages people in this age group to take\u00a0extra precautions\u00a0to prevent contracting the disease\u2014and why grocery stores are increasingly designating hours for\u00a0seniors-only shopping.<\/p>\n

Other medical conditions<\/h2>\n

Older folks, too, are more likely to have underlying health conditions that could make Covid-19 symptoms more severe. But they\u2019re not the only ones\u2014anyone of any age can have medical conditions that put them at higher risk.<\/p>\n

People with conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer may be\u00a0more likely to have severe symptoms\u00a0of Covid-19, which can lead to a\u00a0higher risk of death, than people with no underlying medical conditions. People with underlying medical conditions are also more frequently hospitalized with the virus.<\/p>\n

Some diseases could impair the function of organs like the\u00a0heart; others alter how the immune system works, which could inhibit the body\u2019s response to the coronavirus. Chronic lung disease, as well as smoking and vaping, can increase lung damage and\u00a0may make\u00a0Covid-19 symptoms more severe, though few studies have looked at this.<\/p>\n

Genes<\/h2>\n

Several teams of international researchers are working to understand how genetics may affect the severity of a Covid-19 infection. They\u2019re looking in a lot of different places, but they have a pretty good idea of where to start.<\/p>\n

SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, infects humans by\u00a0attaching itself\u00a0to a particular receptor on the outside of cells called ACE2, which it uses to invade a cell. It\u2019s like a cellular phishing scam, as my\u00a0colleague Katherine Foley writes. Slight variations in the genetic blueprint for those receptors might play a role in how sick a person gets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see huge differences in clinical outcomes and across countries. How much of that is explained by genetic susceptibility is a very open question,\u201d geneticist Andrea Ganna of the University of Helsinki\u2019s Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM),\u00a0told Science Magazine.<\/p>\n

Other teams are looking at whether blood type, which is determined by genes, can change the severity of a patient\u2019s Covid-19 symptoms. A\u00a0preliminary study\u00a0conducted in Shenzhen and Wuhan, China found that patients with type A blood had more severe symptoms than those with type O blood. The study authors warn that it\u2019s too early to make clinical decisions based on this finding.<\/p>\n

Sex<\/h2>\n

Researchers in China found that\u00a058% of patients\u00a0hospitalized with Covid-19 were male; there was a similar imbalance in patients in the\u00a0US\u00a0and\u00a0Italy, too.<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0speculate\u00a0that this could be because men\u2019s social habits (and the fact that\u00a0many don\u2019t wash their hands\u00a0as often) make it more likely for them to contract the disease, which would mean the increased hospitalizations were simply a result of a greater number of overall infections. But it could also be because men are generally thought to have\u00a0weaker immune systems\u00a0and tend to have\u00a0more underlying health issues\u00a0than women; women\u2019s two X chromosomes may have a\u00a0protective quality\u00a0against a number of conditions.<\/p>\n

Previous immunizations<\/h2>\n

Recently,\u00a0researchers observed something somewhat surprising: Countries in which people were required to receive the bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, one of the oldest\u00a0to combat tuberculosis, had fewer cases and deaths from Covid-19. Countries hit hardest by the disease, such as Italy, the Netherlands, and the US, do not have universal vaccination programs; others, like Iran, have programs that are too new to have reached the elderly population.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time researchers have found that the BCG vaccine works to combat diseases other than TB. It\u2019s used to treat\u00a0early-stage bladder cancer\u00a0and\u00a0prevents leprosy. And, perhaps most relevant to Covid-19, one study found that the vaccine also\u00a0reduces the severity\u00a0of lower lung infections caused by viruses.<\/p>\n

Now, researchers in countries such as Australia and the Netherlands are\u00a0beginning trials\u00a0to see if the BCG vaccine can prevent and reduce the severity of Covid-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of what makes the Covid-19 pandemic so unnerving\u00a0is that it\u2019s hard to know how the virus will affect any individual person. Though most people infected with the coronavirus \u2014\u00a081%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) \u2014 will present with few or mild symptoms, others may find themselves relying on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090,2],"tags":[3086,3087,3222],"class_list":["post-41964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-featured","tag-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus-infection","tag-covid-19"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Covid-19 infections affect people differently - TimesKuwait<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/why-covid-19-infections-affect-people-differently\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Covid-19 infections affect people differently - TimesKuwait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part of what makes the Covid-19 pandemic so unnerving\u00a0is that it\u2019s hard to know how the virus will affect any individual person. 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