Recent studies suggest that more men than women are the victims of coronavirus in Wuhan.?
According to Business Insider report, among Wuhan University hospital patients documented in one study, 54% were men. An earlier study of hospitalized patients documented 68% infected people as men.?
Researchers are trying to find, what about men makes them more susceptible or what in women and children protects them.?
Experts believe that people who get infected depend on differing rates of underlying conditions or even the anti-infection capabilities of female hormones.?Almost half the patients who contracted coronavirus had some underlying condition.?
SARS virus in 2003 struck more women among younger adults (20-54), but was more prevalent among men in older ages (55 and up).?University of Iowa researchers exposed male and female mice to the virus, and found that the males were more likely to contract SARS.?
According to the report, further tests suggested that estrogen might actually block the virus from infecting cells, but its unclear if the same is true in humans.?
However, there could be a simpler explanation. According to Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 'The possible explanation is that the nCoV infection in patients in the previous report was related to exposure associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, and most of the affected patients were male workers’.?
If that is indeed the case, the coronavirus gender gap may soon disappear as more number of infected cases are reported.?