Asthma patients less likely to contract Covid-19, claims study

A recent study has claimed that asthma patients are less likely to contract the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The study was published on November 24 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

According to researchers, the objective of the study was to observe Covid-19 susceptibility in patients with bronchial asthma. The scientists used data from a large nationwide health maintenance organisation in Israel.

“The enrollees who had been tested for COVID-19 from February to June 2020 were included,” said the study.

Further describing the results of the study, the researchers said that 37,469 subjects were tested for Covid-19 RT-PC test and results for 2,266 of them were positive. This constituted just above six per cent of 6.05% patients who tested positive.

Asthma was found in 153 (or 6.75 per cent) subjects of the Covid-19-positive group, the study said. “We observed lower Covid-19 susceptibility in patients with pre-existing asthma,” said the authors of the study.

They, however, pointed out that more research is needed on the subject.

A study in October on the similar group (asthma patients) in the United States had said that these patients who become infected with Covid-19 appear to have no higher risk of hospitalisation or need for mechanical breathing assistance compared to Covid-19 patients without asthma.

The October study had also said that asthma patients are less likely to die from the disease.

Researchers at a Boston healthcare system had studied 562 asthma patients with Covid-19 and 2,686 similarly-aged Covid-19 patients without asthma for the study. The two groups were hospitalised at similar rates and had similar need for mechanical ventilation.

But the asthma patients were 70 per cent less likely to die from the virus, researchers reported. None of the 44 patients with severe asthma died.