Coronavirus outbreak: More men are dying from COVID-19 than women, here's why?

With the outbreak of COVID-19 spreading its flames all over the world, doctors, scientists, researchers are coming with different assumptions regarding the same.

COVID-19, is an “equal-opportunity virus” says Dr. Cara Tannenbaum, Scientific Director of the Institute of Gender and Health for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

It seems to infect men and women equally, with about the same number of cases appearing in males and females, according to international data.

If this is considered to be true,  why is the male category getting more affected than females? Why is the death rate of men more than women?? 

To be true,  it is not yet found out.

This gendered behaviour could contribute to the higher death rates among men, Tannenbaum said.

“Men are more likely to smoke. We saw that especially in some of the Asian countries, like China,” she said.

“And once your lungs have been affected by the smoke, they’re unable to deal with fighting off the virus as well.”

There might also be factors related to biological sex that explain how the virus affects males and females differently, she said, though she’s careful to note that these are all just speculations at this point.

The virus connects to and enters your cells via a “receptor,” she said, which she describes like a code punched in on a keypad, granting access. In this case, the receptor is called ACE-2, and it’s controlled by a gene on the X chromosome, she said.

Females have two X chromosomes, and males have one X and one Y chromosome. “And so the fact that men don’t have two X chromosomes, right away you wonder if that puts them at an advantage or disadvantage for getting sick,” Tannenbaum said.

The ACE-2 receptor “seems to be over-expressed in men, meaning there’s more doors for the virus to get into the cell,” she said.