EN - Educational (Strategic Plan) - Flipbook - Page 16
06
COVID-19 IMPACTS
ON MEN
Worldwide, men infected with COVID-19 are three times more likely
to need intensive care, highlighting the need for more research into
how sex differences can impact disease.
After finding that women have better early
antiviral response than men, researchers
from UCT and University College London
(UCL) gathered COVID-19 reports from
global hotspots to study whether this
might give them relative protection from
viral infections.
Their results, published in Nature
Communications, reveal that the men and
women studied had an equal chance of
being infected. Of those infected, however,
men had higher rates of hospitalisation,
and a 40% higher chance of dying from
COVID-19 compared to women.
“We know that men, in general, have
poorer immune responses to many different
infections. Women on the other hand
generally have a stronger immune response
to infections,” said Dr Kate Webb, from
UCT’s Department of Paediatrics and Child
Health, who collaborated on the research.
The findings could help contribute
to vaccine development, and to better
predict who is at risk of severe disease.
They also reveal a gap in the knowledge
landscape that future research projects
could fill.
“The findings should empower researchers
to ask why we see these differences, and
how we can exploit this information in the
fight against COVID-19,” said Webb.
Women have a better
early antiviral response
than men. This might give
them relative protection
from viral infections.
CLICK HERE TO
READ THE ARTICLE
16
