COVID-19 has mainly affected older adults and children the most, and it is not an old fact that no one is aware of, but when you say older adults, it is talking about men. Although a disease as deadly as COVID-19, everyone is vulnerable and in danger of contracting the disease by transmitting it to several other people.
There have been new theories developing now and then stating a different idea about several possibilities to cure COVID-19. But not all of them have proven to be successful until the vaccine finally arrived this year with the hopes of eradicating diseases and their widespread infection.
But according to several researchers and various studies conducted in the past year, figures have confirmed that COVID-19 has hit men harder than women, and several factors explain the same things from different angles.
Experts have mentioned that men dying more than women differ from their biological aspects to their bad everyday life habits. There is much research to explain this theory, and each of them tested this idea from different perspectives giving the same results.
Some Chinese researchers have claimed that in a large population of COVID-19 affected patients, 70 percent has been confirmed as men, a significantly larger quantity of patients in a particular gender. These researchers also mentioned a study conducted on the 2003 outbreak of SARs, and it bagged men the highest position of getting affected by this virus.
The disease has hit every gender from small to big in large numbers. Still, if we go back to check the figures now, men have topped the severely affected gender list. WHO themselves have responded to these figures saying that in Europe, there has been a greater ratio of male sex dying due to COVID-19.
The worldwide figures of COVID-19 affected people; male sex is reported as the highest to be severely affected and die of the disease. It is necessary to understand that these figures highlight a much deeper story about why only men are affected by this disease more acutely than women?
New York City’s health department reported that April witnessed 43 deaths out of every 1,00,000 males and 23 deaths out of every 1,00,000 females. The comparison is relative to many margins, and it depends on various factors and aspects of men’s life.
An expert has given his mind that closely observed; older men tend to have more heart diseases, high blood pressure, or liver diseases than Older women. These health conditions are somewhat responsible for attracting a disease as deadly as COVID towards the male populace.
The story of the immune system and who is Weaker?
The first thing to look for when mainly talking about a gender facing a problem in the majority is there a biological aspect that compels the researchers and various doctors globally to check what inhibits their body to protect itself from a dangerous disease like COVID-19?
When we talk about diseases as deadly as coronavirus, the immune system plays an essential role in ruling out all possible reasons for catching the disease. There is not just one but many things to check in the list that has made them vulnerable to infectious disease with no cure.
A study published in May mentioned that men have a higher concentration of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a blood pressure relieving enzyme that allows the SARs-CoV2 COVID-19 virus to quickly reach for the healthy cells in their body and start infecting or destroying them. ACE2 concentration is less in women, so that is one reason why women are less vulnerable compared to men.
The other aspect of men being more vulnerable to the disease is the hormones, or we might say an X chromosome being extra in women make their immune system relatively stronger than men.
The particular theory has made some researchers go and conduct a trial on some men in the United States who were COVID infected. According to Healthline, to treat the same, they were injected with estrogen hormone for testing this chromosome and more robust immune system theory.
When we talk about the immune system and biological aspects, we cannot overlook the habits that make men more sensitive and vulnerable to disease, especially when they already have one condition present in their system. The consideration of men that they are the more vigorous sex doesn’t work health-wise.
The fewer figures in the case of women being affected with the disease make it more profound that men have several habits and circumstances that cause any disease drawn to them, such as smoking, which is why the maximum number of diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, etc.
The Ph.D. director of the Institute for Research on Men’s Health at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, Derek M. Griffith, mentioned that,
High-risk occupations deemed “essential” under pandemic emergency orders — notably first responders — also may be “disproportionately jobs men traditionally do.
It probably means that the outside pollution and extreme working conditions, which a man has to go through, also affect the system making it more appealing for the diseases to attract themselves.
Pollution is a factor that has led to more respiratory infections. Still, we cannot specifically mark it as a risk factor only for men because women now have been moving to places and working as equivalent to men, making them as a gender vulnerable to disease if not for an infectious disease like COVID-19.
Not being a risk-taker, but looking for symptoms.
Yes, men do have the attitude to break the rules and not follow the protocols, and they have been doing it during the COVID period. Men do not follow the social distancing protocol much because of several social gatherings they attend, where for them, a handshake is a must thing.
Several men have also been found not wearing masks while visiting places, and this has undoubtedly made them a sufferer of disease as severe as COVID-19. In most households, men think that looking towards their health is not their job, which is a predominant factor in men after a certain age.
The younger age men are now more health-conscious than older adults, and they prefer being more cautious of a disease like COVID. It is still not right to claim all the effects and aspects in the case of COVID-19 because of the inevitable nature of what-will-happen-if-you-suffer-from-this-disease?
It could have unknown effects on both genders, and a proper attitude towards wearing masks and following protocol is the need of the hour. Gender does matter, but it could certainly change due to the negligence factor. Men should not be negligible with their health and not ignore a specific symptom.
The best a man could do to reduce this growing ratio of death in their gender is no ignore symptoms and say that they are better aware of themselves and the disease. They never know what hits them when and how it is affecting their body. Whenever you see a symptom, you rush to your physician and get yourself tested for the infection.
It is always better to be safe than sorry, and men need to understand this simple idea of not being self-sufficient in a case like COVID, which has already proven itself a life taker and more in men’s scenario.
