Covid-19 affects males more, 2003 Sars predominant in females: Study

nNEWDELHI:A new study in Taiwan has flagged significant differences between the current coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, outbreak that originated in China’s Hubei province late last year and the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that killed 774 people in mainland China and Hong Kong.

The SARS outbreak was the first to be caused by a mutant strain of the coronavirus, the Sars-cov virus, which is related to the Sars-cov-2 virus that is the reason for the current Covid-19 epidemic.

The study, which will appear in the Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease journal, was based on coronavirus diseases that appeared in Taiwan until January 31 and SARS patients from April 25 and May 19, 2003.

The study found that women were more susceptible to SARS (the male to female ratio was seen at 0.52: 1), while in the initial stages of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the ratio was seen at 1.3: 1.

In the SARS cases, the age of the patients ranged from 5 to 90 years, with a mean age of 36.6 years, which was around 20 years less than the patients with Covid-19.

“From our data we know that Covid-19 affects males more, unlike SARS, which is predominant in females. The Covid-19 patients are around 20 years older than the patients with SARS. Young adults are more susceptible to SARS than children and the elderly… overall, a longer observation period is needed to study the Sars-cov-2 outbreak,” said the authors Yu-jang Su, of the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, and Yen-chun Lai of the Musoon Women’s Clinic in Taipei.

Typically, in the process of developing a successful vaccine, some candidates are found to be either unsafe or ineffective. “Screening out duds is essential, which is why clinical trials can’t be skipped or hurried. Approval can be accelerated if regulators have approved similar products before. The annual flu vaccine, for example, is the product of a well-honed assembly line in which only one or a few modules have to be updated each year,” the report says. Sars-cov-2, however, is a completely new pathogen in humans and technologies deployed against it are largely untested.