Asthma patients may be at lower risk of COVID-19 infection: Study

NEW DELHI: A study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology revealed that people with asthma may be at a lower risk of COVID-19 infection. Researchers wrote that they have observed lower COVID-19 susceptibility in patients with pre-existing asthma. According to the study, all enrollees of health maintenance organisation who were tested positive for COVID-19 infection, between February to June 2020, have been included in the study.

37,469 people were examined for COVID-19 infection as part of the study and almost 6.05 per cent (2,266) of them tested positive. The study has also revealed that a number of asthma patients were more in the COVID-19 negative group than the ones who tested positive. The COVID-19 positive group had 153 (6.75 per cent) people with asthma and the number went to 3,388 (9.62 per cent) in COVID-19 negative group, study said.

Eugene Merzon, Researcher, talked about the loopholes in the study and said that there is a possibility that people with asthma may take more precautions as they know they are at higher risk of COVID-19 infection.  The study also said that a large number of smokers were also present in COVID-19 negative group (13.45 per cent) than in the positive one (4.55 per cent).