Coronavirus kills more men than women

The death rate of men dying from coronavirus is higher than the rates in women.

Although men and women get infected at equal rates, men seem to be dying from coronavirus at a significantly higher rate than the women globally.

There could be fundamental biological differences between men and women that may make COVID-19 worse in men as several researchers pointed out.

According to the New York Times, citing a Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention analysis, the death rate of men dying from coronavirus is 2.8 per cent while the rate for the women is 1.7 per cent.

Sabra Klein, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says, “We’ve seen this with other viruses. Women fight them off better.

Researchers also say that smoking, drinking, general poor health could be the main reason as to why there are more men dying than women. And this is particularly in China, where 48 per cent of men above 15 smoke, compared with just 2 per cent of women, according to the WHO.

A group of men in China play cards as they smoke cigarettes.

Normally, women have two of the X chromosome that contains a large number of immune-related genes that fight diseases that’s why they are better able to fend off infections than men.

Women could also have a reduced susceptibility” to viral infections, and chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Researchers at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital said.

For instance in Italy, men make up 60 per cent of confirmed cases and more than 70 per cent of those who have died of COVID-19 are men, according to the country’s main public health research agency.

Medical workers carry a coffin in Italy as death toll rises.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic reached Italy, early reports out of China suggested men were especially at risk.

A study in China found that 99 patients at a hospital in Wuhan among the tens of thousands of people infected there, 2.8 per cent of men died from the virus compared with 1.7 per cent of women.

“The honest truth is that today we don’t know why COVID-19 is more severe for men than women or why the magnitude of the difference is greater in Italy than China,” said Sabra Klein.

While in South Korea, women make up 61 per cent of confirmed cases, but 54 per cent of those who died were men, The Washington Post reported.

Not necessarily coronavirus, but men in these countries also tend to die at higher rates from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and respiratory diseases between ages 30 and 70.