GridStar.ID – Covid-19 virus now still continues to haunt everyone in the world.
More than 39.8 million people from all over the world are infected with this virus, and 1.11 million people have died from it.
According to the data, this virus kills more men than girls.
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Many factors cause this to happen.
At the beginning of the corona virus outbreak, data from hospitals in China revealed that Covid-19 killed more men than women.
It turned out that not only in China, these cases were also found in other countries such as South Korea, Italy and the United States.
Launching The Washington Post, (17/10), according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in mid-October, the corona virus has killed more men than women in the country.
For every 10 women who are claimed to have Covid-19 in the US, 12 men have died.
This difference is one of the many worrying aspects of this new type of corona virus.
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Possible causes
The group of researchers studying gender relations with disease caused by the corona virus was not surprised and prepared various hypotheses for this incident, one of which was a possible cause related to male behavior.
Men are more likely to be exposed to the virus because social factors can put them in more contact with infected people.
While another possibility, men’s lungs are more vulnerable because they tend to smoke.
After months of the outbreak, men show relatively weaker immune responses to infection with the coronavirus, which can lead to higher mortality.
“If you look at the data all over the world, there are as many infected men as women.
Only disease severity is stronger in a large proportion of the population in men, “said Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, a Tulane University doctor who studies gender differences in diseases like diabetes.
Male immune response
Also, in general, women have stronger immune systems, thanks to sex hormones and chromosomes that are packed with genes related to immunity.
Johns Hopkins University microbiologist Sabra Klein said about 60 genes on the X chromosome are involved in immune function.
People with two X chromosomes benefit from some of these genes.
Akiko Iwasaki, who studies immune defense against the virus at Yale University, studies how sex differences can play a role in coronavirus infection.
“We have a holistic view of everything we can measure immunologically,” Iwasaki said.
Iwasaki mentioned a number of molecules and cells that form the body’s stronghold against pathogens, such as cytokines, chemokines, T cells, B cells, and neutrophils.
The scientists found that the T cell response in male patients was weaker, with T cells not only detecting infected cells and killing them, but also helping to direct the antibody response, or a key regulator of the immune response.
Furthermore, the strength of the immune system diminishes with age, regardless of gender, with results suggesting that the T cell response in men in their 30s and 40s is equivalent to that of women in their 90s.
Launching nytimes, Iwasaki’s team analyzed the immune response in 17 men and 22 women who were hospitalized immediately after they contracted the coronavirus.
The researchers collected blood, nasopharyngeal swabs, saliva, urine, and feces from the patients every three to seven days.
The analysis excluded patients on ventilators and taking drugs that affect the immune system.
“To make sure that we are measuring the natural immune response to the virus,” said Iwasaki.
More T cells The researchers also analyzed data from 59 additional men and women who did not meet these criteria.
Overall, the scientists found, women’s bodies produce more T cells, which can kill virus-infected cells and stop the spread of infection.
T cell activity in men was much weaker and that slowness was related to how sick the man was, whereas the older the man, the weaker the T cell response.
Women develop a faster and stronger immune response, which may be because their bodies are designed to fight pathogens that threaten their unborn or newborn babies.
But over time, the immune system in a constant high alert can be dangerous. Most autoimmune diseases, which are characterized by an overly strong immune response, are more common in women than men.
Different behavior
Beyond biological differences, it would be very simple to ignore how other aspects of gender, such as social behavior and norms, could influence a pandemic.
In general, men are less likely to worry about Covid-19 than women, in keeping with the pattern that women generally take health protocols more seriously, such as wearing masks and implementing social distancing.
Some experts hope that this moment can be used to highlight gender differences in other health.
After all, the corona virus is not the only problem that afflicts men and women unequally, neither can cancer, asthma, heart disease and other common ailments.
This article has been published on Kompas.com with the title
Why Has Covid-19 Killed More Men Than Women? This is the explanation …
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