The coronavirus is attacking Italian men much harder than women. Some experts warn that being male could potentially be a risk factor for the illness, just as much as old age. Italy is following a trend seen in China, where more men die from COVID-19 than women.
Italy saw more men than women get infected, while a higher portion of infected men died. According to Rome’s Higher Health Institute analysis of 25,058 cases in Italy, roughly 8% of male patients died, compared with 5% of female patients.
Sabra Klein, a scientist from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said:
Being male is as much a risk factor for the coronavirus as being old. People need to be aware that there is this pattern. Just like being old means you’re at higher risk, so does being male. It’s a risk factor.
Klein, who studied sex differences in viral infections, said the vulnerability could be behavioral or biological. Women have more robust immune systems, while men smoke in higher numbers, and most likely don’t wash their hands as much.
In Italy, nearly 30% of men smoke, compared with 19% of women; in China, over 50% of men smoke, compared with less than 3% of women. In the United States, 17.5% of men smoke, compared with 13.5% of women.
Klein added:
We don’t always understand why something is a risk factor, and we’re probably not going to be able to pinpoint one thing. But it’s remarkable that we’re seeing this across such socially and culturally distinct countries as Italy and China. More needs to be made of this fact.
Out of the 25,058 coronavirus cases in Italy, men represented 58% of them and 70% of the 1,697 deaths. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention, in China, the death rate for men was 2.8%, compared to 1.7% for women.
Men have shown a higher death rate than women in previous outbreaks of disease such as the SARS, MERS, and the middle east respiratory syndrome in 2003, and 1918. It appears women have a more reliable immune system than men. Estrogen plays a role in immunity as does the X chromosome, which contains immune-related genes. Men only carry one X chromosome, while women have two.
A WHO report on cases from the European region showed that out of 11,228 COVID-19 infections with known data, 57% were in men. Out of 1,032 deaths for which records were available, only 28% were women.
