Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, the scientific community has noticed a greater number of serious cases in men than in women. Researchers have just published the results of their meta-analysis. According to them, the probability of being hospitalized in intensive care is almost three times higher for men than for women.
Men are more at risk of developing severe forms of Covid-19
In a study published December 9, 2020 in Nature Communications, scientists from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and University College London performed a meta-analysis to determine if gender could be a risk factor SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality. To do this, the researchers relied on case data available from 90 reports comprising 46 different countries and 44 US states totaling 3,111,714 infected cases.
Based on the results of this meta-analysis, the researchers found that there is ” no difference in the proportion of men and women infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the sample “. In contrast, the probability of being hospitalized in intensive care is almost three times higher for men (2.84 times) than for women. Likewise, men have a higher probability of dying (1.39 times) compared to women.
According to the study’s authors: “ if there is no difference in the proportion of men and women infected with SARS-CoV-2, men face higher odds of admission and death to the intensive therapy unit (ITU) in relation to women. Confirming this gender disparity with global data has important implications for the continued public health response to this pandemic “.
The biological factors at the origin of this difference between men and women
These large-scale data have also shown that this disparity is a global phenomenon. According to the authors of the study, this finding is explained by biological factors. Indeed, women would develop a stronger immune response than men. For example, women produce more type 1 interferon, proteins produced naturally in the body in response to a viral infection and a deficiency of which may be the hallmark of severe forms of Covid-19.
According to the authors of the study: “ previous reports describe fundamental gender differences in the immune response to infection, which include a more robust innate antiviral response to interferon and increased adaptive immunity to viral antigens in women. In people infected with SARS-CoV-2, these differences are likely to lead to more effective viral control in women, which may contribute to the relatively lower risk of developing serious disease. “.
