Asthma does not increase the risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19

A new study looking at how COVID-19 affects people with asthma provides reassurance that the condition does not increase the risk of serious illness or death from the virus.

The George Institute for Global Health researchers in Australia analyzed data from 57 studies with a total sample size of 587,280. Nearly 350,000 people in the pool were infected with COVID-19 from Asia, Europe, and North and South America and were found to have the same levels of asthma as the general population.

The results, published in a peer review Iris Asthma, showing that just over seven in 100 people tested positive for COVID-19, compared to just over eight in 100 of the general population with the condition. They also showed that people with asthma had a 14 percent lower risk of getting COVID-19 and were significantly more likely to be hospitalized with the virus.

There was no difference in risk of death from COVID-19 in people with asthma compared with those without.

The Institute’s Head of Respiratory Program, co-author Professor Christine Jenkins said that while the reasons for these decisions were not clear, there were some explanations – such as some inhalers perhaps restricts the ability of the virus to attach to the lungs.

“Chemical receptors in the lungs that the virus binds to are so active in people with certain types of asthma and some studies suggest that inhaled corticosteroids – commonly used to treat asthma – to reduce their activity even more, “she said.

“Also, initial uncertainty about the effects of asthma on COVID-19 may have raised concerns among patients and carers that are leading them to be more vigilant about disease prevention.”

Lead author Dr Anthony Sunjaya said that while this study provides some reassurance about the dangers of COVID-19 in people with asthma, doctors and researchers were still learning about the effect of the virus.

Although we have shown that people with asthma with COVID-19 infection do not appear to have a higher risk compared to those without asthma and have similar results, we need more research to better understand how those affected by the virus are affected by the virus. “

Dr. Anthony Sunjaya, Lead Author

When COVID-19 epidemic first spread around the world concerns were raised that people with asthma may be at greater risk of becoming infected, or becoming more ill or even suffering from asthma. death.

Previous findings have shown that people with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma were reported to be at increased risk during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, caused by a virus with a similar structure.

“Respiratory diseases such as those caused by coronaviruses can make asthma symptoms worse and corticosteroid treatment may increase the severity and severity of COVID-19 infection,” said Dr. Sunjaya.

But this study uses the best available evidence on the risk of infection, serious illness – requiring admission to ICU and / or use of an ventilator – and death from COVID-19 in humans with asthma finding that there is no “significant difference” in people with higher-risk asthma.

Funded by Asthma Australia, the study included an analysis of 45 hospital-based studies, six community-based studies and six mixed-use studies. 22 of the studies were conducted in North America, 19 Asia, 14 Europe, and two in South America. Four of the studies had only children, making up 211 of the participants.

The average age of the participants was around 52; while 52.5% were male, 11.75% were current smokers and 16.2% previously. 54% had some form of comorbidities, 21% had diabetes and about 8% had obstructive pulmonary disease.

Thirty-six publications were peer-reviewed; a further 17 were preliminary data, 3 were government reports and 1 was an open dataset.

The paper’s findings also show that growing age is strongly associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 infection among asthmatics and accounted for 70% of the inter- inspection. “This is an expected finding and according to other COVID-19 studies showing age as one of the most important predictors for vulnerability to COVID-19 and prognosis,” the authors conclude. add.

This review has “adhered strictly to guidelines for performing systematic reviews”, but there are limitations that this is primarily a synthesis of subjective studies, with a short period of follow-up, mostly self-report and variable reporting of potential outcomes. introduce a bias in the accumulated effect.