Int J Infect Dis. 2020 Jul 18:S1201-9712(20)30560-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.07.016. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
As the 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 spreads globally, differences in adverse clinical management outcomes have been associated with associated with age >65years, male gender, and co-morbidities such as smoking, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular comorbidity and immunosuppression. Ethnicity has been the focus of attention after data from the United Kingdom showed a disproportionate number of deaths among healthcare workers from black, Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds (1). In addition to ethnicity, socio-economic factors, prior vaccinations and exposure to other coronaviruses, other factors need to be considered to explain geographical and regional variations in susceptibility, severity of clinical expression of COVID-19 disease and outcomes. In the United States there have been disproportionate COVID-19 death rates among African Americans at around 2.6 times higher than that of other groups. Although these data could be due to multiple cultural and socioeconomic factors an underlying genetic susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection may be a factor.
PMID:32693089 | DOI:10.1016/j.ijid.2020.07.016