[ad_1]
A new study on how COVID-19 affects people with asthma reassures that being infected does not increase the risk of serious illness or death from the virus.
Researchers at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia analyzed data from 57 studies with an overall sample of 587,280 people. Nearly 350,000 people in the pool had been infected with COVID-19 from Asia, Europe and North and South America and found that they had proportions of asthma similar to those in the general population.
The results, published in the magazine Asthma Journal, show that just over seven in 100 people who tested positive for COVID-19 also had asthma, compared to just over eight in 100 people in the general population. They also showed that people with asthma had a 14% lower risk of contracting COVID-19 and were significantly less likely to be hospitalized with the virus.
There was no apparent difference in the risk of death from COVID-19 in people with asthma compared to those without.
Director of the Institute’s Respiratory Program, co-author Professor Christine Jenkins said that while the reasons for these findings were unclear, there were possible explanations – such as some inhalers possibly limiting the ability of the virus to attach to the lungs.
“The chemical receptors in the lungs to which the virus binds are less active in people with a particular type of asthma and some studies suggest that inhaled corticosteroids – commonly used to treat asthma – may reduce their activity even further. “she said.
“In addition, the initial uncertainty regarding the impact of asthma on COVID-19 may have caused anxiety among patients and caregivers, leading them to be more vigilant about preventing infections.
Lead author Dr Anthony Sunjaya added that while this study provides some assurance about the risks of exposure to COVID-19 in people with asthma, doctors and researchers are still learning about the effects of the virus.
“While we have shown that people with asthma do not appear to have a higher risk of COVID-19 infection compared to those who do not have asthma and have similar results, we need to additional research to better understand how the virus affects people with asthma, ”he said. .
When the COVID-19 pandemic first spread across the world, concerns were raised that people with asthma could be at a higher risk of becoming infected, becoming sicker or even to die.
Previous findings have shown that people with chronic respiratory diseases like asthma were at higher risk during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, caused by a virus with a similar structure.
“Respiratory infections like those caused by coronaviruses can exacerbate asthma symptoms and corticosteroid treatment can increase susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and its severity,” said Dr. Sunjaya.
However, this study using the best available evidence on the risk of infection, serious illness – requiring intensive care admission and / or ventilator use – and death from COVID-19 in people with asthma cannot be found. “No significant difference” between people with asthma. at higher risk.
Funded by Asthma Australia, the review included analysis of 45 studies in hospital settings, six studies in the community and six in a mixed setting. 22 of these studies were conducted in North America, 19 in Asia, 14 in Europe and two in South America. Four of the studies included only children, or 211 of the participants.
The average age of the participants was around 52 years; while 52.5% were males, 11.75% were current smokers and 16.2% were former smokers. 54% had some form of co-morbidity, 21% had diabetes and about 8% had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Thirty-six studies were peer-reviewed publications; Another 17 were pre-impressions, 3 were government reports, and 1 were an open data set.
The results of the article also show that increasing age is strongly associated with an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 in asthmatics and explains 70% of the variance between studies in the analysis. “This is an expected finding and in line with other studies on COVID-19 showing age as one of the most important predictors of COVID-19 vulnerability and prognosis,” the authors add.
This review “strictly adhered to the guidelines for conducting systematic reviews”, but the limitations are however that it is a synthesis of mainly observational studies, with a short follow-up period, mainly of asthma. self-reported and varying ratios of outcomes that may introduce bias into the combined effect.
Source link
