Pune: Out of the total cases of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), nearly 60 per cent of patients are male, whereas 40 per cent are female. Also, 63 per cent deaths are that of men and 37 per cent of women, says a report by the state health department.
This report was published on Wednesday, which also includes the analysis.
Sharing a few critical insights, Dr Vichar Nigam, Internal Medicine department at the Columbia Asia Hospital in Pune said that this was ironical knowing the poor nutritional status of Indian women overall, men were more prone to it.
"The reason appears to be more logical than scientific and medical. Although the prevalence of addictions being more among males makes them more susceptible to disease that doesn't make them more predisposed to infection," said Dr Nigam.
He added that why more and more males are testing positive is the fact that they tend to move out of the house in search of household items and involve in general social talk more than the women.
"On the other hand, women take care of household activities tend to wash their hands more often. Especially during the social lockdown, men would always be interested in going out, unlike the women who were more concerned to take care of the household and the children," said Dr Nigam.
He further said that the most important precaution is to avoid going out as much as possible and even if it is required should be done with social distancing followed by appropriate hand hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus in the society.
City-based Urologist, Dr RK Shimpi also shared that many men do not take proper care of their health.
"Men do not take the initiative to get themselves tested and diagnosed delaying the treatment which leads to worsening their condition and eventually the death," said Dr Shimpi.
As per recent research at Johns Hopkins University, it was found that the immunity response by women is better than men. Researchers across the globe suggest that this may be a reason for more fatalities among men.
Dr Harish Kumar, senior consultant and the head of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Noble Heart and Superspeciality Hospital said that it was a proven fact now that males are more commonly affected by COVID-19 as compared to females.
"Even more importantly, male patients are having more severe illness and a higher death rate than female patients. Many factors are responsible for this skewing. First of all, genetic factors play a role, and immunity levels are stronger in females than males which protect them from getting infected. Secondly, smoking and smoking-related respiratory illness are more prevalent in the male population, which makes them more prone to COVID-19 and other lung infections overall," said Dr Kumar.
He further added that all over the world, the heart ailments and cancers are more common in elderly males than elderly females which lead to more serious COVID-19 illness in males and more death rates in them as compared to the female population.
"Unfortunately, immediate precautions other than standard isolation practices may not help in this regard. Still, smoking cessation, a high index of suspicion in patients of heart diseases and cancer patients, early testing and early medical therapy might help males from getting this dangerous COVID-19 infection," said Dr Kumar.
