Blessed to be a woman? A study in 5 countries that make up about a quarter of the world's population found that men were more likely to contract coronary complications and even die from the virus
The fight against the corona virus is underway and there is still no complete data from all over the world, but it is now clear that more men are infected with the virus, sick - and eventually die from it. A CNN study found that 60 percent of the virus in Italy were men, and 70 percent were dead. In South Korea, more women were infected, but 54 percent of the dead were men.
Photo: Ministry of Health
Following this information, CNN contacted the 20 countries around the world where the virus is spreading, to request information on the distribution among women and men. The network did this jointly with an international research organization called Global Health 50/50, in order to check whether more men and women are actually dying from the corona virus. Of the 20 countries examined, six countries: China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy and South Korea answered the request. The characteristic that is repeated in all these countries, which represents about a quarter of the world's population: men are sicker and more dead than the corona virus.
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Sarah Hawkes, a professor of public health worldwide at University College London, notes, "There is a clear correlation in all the data. You see gaps between country and state but the data shows a man has 10 to 90 percent more deaths as a result of the Corona than a woman. It is important that the system should take into account and address it in its population guidelines. "
Corona area expert Dr. White Deborah Brix also referred to this data at a press briefing last week, saying that "in Italy, we see that male mortality is twice that of female mortality in any age group and it helps us prepare here in the US."
Dr. Lewis Ostrosky-Zeichner, an infectious disease expert from McGovern Medical School in Texas, is not surprised by the data. "We have already seen this phenomenon in SARS that men are more injured and die," Ostrosky-Zeichner noted.
Why are women more immune?
When it comes to why women are more immune, Dr. Louis Ostrosky-Zeichner explains, "Evolutionally, it's understandable - women are developing a stronger immune system. One of the reasons is the need to have children. Women have a foreign body that works in them, so they need to be stronger in terms of the body's defense system. This is also proven to be evolutionary in animals: studies show that males are more vulnerable to disease, "he explains.
According to the expert, "Men also generally live a less healthy lifestyle than women. There are twice as many men smoking in Italy than women, men drinking more, having blood pressure and heart disease than women. For example, in China, 50 percent of men smoke and only 3 percent of women." The researcher is furious that "no disease data is being collected in the world right now, and the World Health Organization has been addressing this issue in 2007 for all countries - and ignored it. Too bad, this is really critical information about the epidemics." Exactly the same criticism is strongly voiced by Dr. Kent Buza, the founder of the GH5050 and the head of the Strategic Guidelines for United Nations countries.
Arthur Kaplan, a bioethicist at the University of New York, says "The information from epidemics is imperative. I hope the material is finally collected now. It is essential to save people."
