Sex dissimilarities in COVID-19
26 April, 2020
COVID-19 affects persons differently, regarding infection with the virus SARS-CoV-2 and mortality rates. In this Special Feature, we focus on a few of the sex differences that characterize this pandemic.
There are many ways that the pandemic itself influences people’s day-to-day lives, and gender - understood as the ensemble of social expectations, norms, and roles we associate with being a man, woman, trans- or nonbinary person - plays an enormous part.
On a societal level, COVID-19 has damaged cis- and transwomen, for instance, differently to how it has cismen, transmen, and nonbinary people. Reproductive rights, decision making around the pandemic, and domestic violence are just some key areas where in fact the pandemic has negatively impacted women.
However, sex differences - understood as the biological characteristics we associate with the sex that one is assigned at birth - also play an undeniable role in an epidemic or pandemic.
While sex and gender are, arguably, inextricably linked in healthcare, as atlanta divorce attorneys other area of our lives, in this Special Feature, we will focus generally on the infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 and the mortality rates that COVID-19 causes, divided by sex.
In specialized literature, these effects are categorized as the umbrella term of ‘primary effects’ of the pandemic, as the ‘secondary impact’ of the pandemic has deeper social and political implications.
Throughout this feature, we utilize the binary conditions ‘man’ and ‘woman’ to accurately reflect the studies and the info they use.
Sex-disaggregated data lacking
Before delving deeper in to the subject of sex distinctions in COVID-19, it really is worth noting that the picture will be incomplete, as not absolutely all countries have released their sex-disaggregated data.
A written report appearing on the weblog of the journal BMJ Global Health on March 24, 2020, reviewed data from 20 countries that had the best number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 at that time.
Of the 20 countries, “Belgium, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK, and america of America” did not provide data that was ‘disaggregated,’ or broken down, by sex.
At that time, the authors of the BMJ report appealed to these countries and others to provide sex specific data.
Anna Purdie, from the University College London, UK, and her colleagues, noted: “We applaud the decision by the Italian government to create data that are fully sex- and age-disaggregated. Other countries […] remain not publishing national data in this manner. We understand but regret this oversight.”
“At the very least, we urgently call on countries to publicly report the numbers of diagnosed infections and deaths by sex. Ideally, countries would also disaggregate their data on testing by sex.”
- Anna Purdie et al.
Since that time, countries that include Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain have made their data available.
The U.K. have made only part of the sex-disaggregated data available - for England and Wales, without covering Scotland and Northern Ireland - while Malaysia and the U.S. have not made their sex-disaggregated data available at all.
During writing this article, the U.S. still have not released their sex-disaggregated data despite the country getting the highest number of COVID-19 cases on the globe.
Men more than doubly likely to die
Global Health 5050, a business that promotes gender equality in healthcare, has rounded up the full total and partial data that's available from the countries with the best numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
According with their data gathering, the highest ratio of male to female deaths, consequently of COVID-19, is in Denmark and Greece: 2.1 to 1 1.
In these countries, men are a lot more than twice as more likely to die from COVID-19 as women. In Denmark, 5.7% of the total number of instances confirmed among men have led to death, whereas 2.7% of women with confirmed COVID-19 have died.
In the Republic of Ireland, the male to female mortality ratio is 2 to at least one 1, while Italy and Switzerland have a 1.9 to at least one 1 ratio each.
The greatest parity between the genders from countries that have submitted a full group of data are Iran, with 1.1 to 1 1, and Norway, with 1.2 to at least one 1.
In Iran, 5.4% of the women patients have died, weighed against 5.9% of the men. In Norway, these numbers stand at 1.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
China has a ratio of just one 1.7, with 2.8% of women having died, weighed against 4.7% of men.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
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