IT has rapidly spread its way around the globe since it emerged just two months ago.
But the killer new coronavirus appears to be posing a particularly deadly threat to men.
The latest figures from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that men are more likely to die from the disease, named Covid-19, than women.
Since the novel virus emerged in China at the end of December, 2,760 people have died and more than 81,000 have been infected globally.
In the first six weeks of the outbreak the numbers of males and females infected by Covid-19 were almost equal.
But their survival rates markedly differed – 1.7 per cent of women died compared with 2.8 per cent of men.
Discrepancy
Experts believe there are a few reasons for this discrepancy, including some biological and other lifestyle choices.
Hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent infection – but multiple studies show that women are much more likely to wash their hands and use soap than men.
Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunology at Yale University, told the New York Times that men may have a “false sense of security” about coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Chinese men are much more likely to smoke than women, which can lead to a weaker immune system.
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In fact China has the largest population of smokers in the world – accounting for nearly a third of the world’s smokers – but just two per cent of them are women.
Chinese men also have higher rates of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than women.
All of these conditions can increase the risk of complications following infection of coronavirus.
Sabra Klein, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the NYT: “This is a pattern we’ve seen with many viral infections of the respiratory tract — men can have worse outcomes.
“We’ve seen this with other viruses. Women fight them off better.”
Women fight them [viruses] off better
Sabra Klein
Research also shows that women produce stronger immune responses after vaccinations, and have enhanced memory immune responses, which protects from pathogens they were exposed to as children.
Dr Janine Clayton, director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health, added: “There’s something about the immune system in females that is more exuberant.”
The reason women have a stronger immune system remains unclear, but researchers have suggested it could be down to a range of biological factors.
These include the female sex hormone oestrogen, which plays a role in immunity, and the fact that women carry two X chromosomes containing immune-related genes.
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Men were also disproportionately affected during the SARS and MERS outbreaks – which were caused by similar coronaviruses.
More women were infected by SARS in Hong Kong in 2003, but the death rate was 50 per cent higher, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome killed 32 percent of men infected compared with 25.8 per cent of women.
Figures from a Lancet paper, based on the details of 99 coronavirus patients admitted to Wuhan hospital in January, found that made up 68 per cent of patients with the deadly illness.
They also revealed that the average age of patients was 55.5 years, including 67 men and 32 women.
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Science writer Anjana Ahuja, in her column for the Financial Times, said: “It is an eye-catching discrepancy.
“A picture is emerging of 2019-nCoV [now COVID-19] as a novel pathogen that disproportionately affects older men, particularly those with existing illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes.”
She said possible reasons for the differences between men and women could be smoking, a variation of hospital treatment and hormonal differences which could impact males’ immune system response.
