Asthma patients may be at lower risk of getting infected with COVID-19: Study

Amid the rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases across the world, a new study has revealed that people with asthma may be at a reduced risk of contracting the deadly viral disease.

The findings of the study were published on November 24 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. "We observed lower Covid-19 susceptibility in patients with preexisting asthma," the researchers wrote.

However, researchers added that more study is required on the matter.

"All health maintenance organisation enrollees who had been tested for Covid-19 from February to June 2020 were included," the study read.

A total of 37,469 people were tested for Covid-19 as part of the study and 2,266 (6.05 per cent) of them tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The study revealed that number of asthma patients was more in the Covid-19 negative group han in the positive group.

"Asthma was found in 153 [6.75 per cent] subjects of the Covid-19-positive group and in 3388 [9.62 per cent] subjects of the Covid-19-negative group," the study said.

Speaking of loopholes in the study, a report quoted Eugene Merzon, a researcher as saying, "It was also possible that asthmatics, knowing they are at risk for more severe cases of the virus, may simply take more precautions against contracting it."

The researchers norted that more study is required in this case as the research was based on "inpatient data" "The prevalence of asthma may be different in outpatient patients with Covid-19," said the researchers,

The study also revealed that "a significantly higher proportion of smokers was observed in the Covid-19-negative group than in the Covid-19-positive group [4734 (13.45 per cent) vs 103 (4.55 per cent). Smoking is negatively associated with a likelihood of Covid-19 infection."