Death rates of males from coronavirus pandemic are three times higher than females.
The number of coronavirus positive cases exceeded 100,000 marks in the country amid the rising trend in the community transmission of the deadly virus at places. Mortality data is showing that the virus is deadlier for men than women.
According to the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) statistics, of the total coronavirus infected cases, 71 percent are men and 29 percent are women. On the other hand, death numbers have also crossed a thousand mark. Some 77 percent of the deceased were men.
An analysis of COVID-19 patients during the initial months of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, found that men accounted for roughly 60 percent of those who were infected and became sick, according to a review published online in March 2020 in the Journal of Medical Virology.
But new research published in April 2020 in Frontiers in Public Health shows a different scenario.
Approximately equal numbers of women and men tested positive for COVID-19. But it appears to hit men harder, resulting in twice as many deaths.
However, health experts termed men’s unhealthy lifestyle, more outside exposure and social engagement, carelessness about health issues, hygiene and immunological, hormonal and genetic factors may be the main causes of the deaths.
Director-General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Abul Kalam Azad said, “It seems to us that women are more careful than men. Genetically there may be something. Besides, women's outside engagement is lesser than men. Again the women who are going out are more careful. Many studies have shown that women have higher immunity too.”
Additional Director General of DGHS Prof Nasima Sultana told journalists that, “There are no studies on male mortality. No specific reason yet identified in this regard. However, as men go outside most often, engaged with more people, and remain unconcerned about health, maybe these are the causes behind higher mortality deaths among men due to coronavirus.
At first, most experts attributed the relatively high number of COVID-19 fatalities in men to behavior and lifestyle, but it appears that the female hormone estrogen might help women fight the virus, said Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, MD, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
Estrogen is broadly distributed in the female body, including in cells that play key roles in fighting pathogens, like bacteria and viruses. Estrogen density in immune cells helps promote the body’s first line of defense against foreign threats (called innate immunity), even when circulating levels of the hormone are declining or low, he added.
Moreover, researchers have investigated the role of sex chromosomes (DNA cells that determine the genetic male or female sex). Genetic men have XY chromosomes; genetic women, XX. The presence of two X chromosomes helps women fight off the coronavirus and also prevents severe COVID-19 symptoms, says an editorial published online in April 2020 in the Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents.
The interaction between a variety of genes and the X chromosome is complicated but highly orchestrated to ensure that at least one X chromosome is working with the immune system at any given time to fight pathogens when needed.
