Coronavirus: obesity, a major risk factor in young people

Are overweight or obese people more likely to develop severe forms of the new coronavirus? Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital in Paris, makes the observation: "More than 80% of those under 50 who are in intensive care at our home because of the Covid-19 are in this case". His colleague Xavier Lescure, infectious disease specialist in the same hospital, abounds: "It is the most common factor for people who develop a severe form of the disease and who have no other history." An audit by the Intensive Care National Audit and Resource Center in London on people hospitalized in several British establishments also goes in the same direction: 72% of people placed in intensive care were overweight (with a higher body mass index BMI at 25) or obese.

Read also: Did France wait too long to confine itself?

It is still too early to draw general conclusions on the causes of this over-representation in intensive care, says the professor.

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