Data on deaths and injuries indicate that men are more likely than women to be infected with Covid-19 disease, which is sweeping the world, and to be exposed to severe complications if they are infected .. The following are clarifications from research and experts:

Are men more susceptible to infection with the emerging coronavirus?

It really seems. In Italy, a study of more than 127,700 patients with "Covid-19" showed that 52.9% of the injured men are men, and 47.1% are women.

Of the first 14,860 deaths, 68% were men. A report by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that of the 44,672 confirmed cases, the death rate was 1.1% higher among men compared to women.

"There is growing evidence that men suffer from more severe symptoms and death rates among them are higher compared to women," said James Gill, a specialist at Warwick Medical School.

* Do we know the reason?

There are many pending questions about why men with Covid-19 have increased their exposure to more severe symptoms, but experts point to several possible factors.

This includes biological and behavioral risks:

Bad habits, such as smoking, and its effects.

Experts say that one of the factors may be that men in general do not care for their health as much as women do, from lower levels of hand washing and hygiene and higher levels of smoking, obesity and other unhealthy behaviors.

In many countries smoking rates are higher among men than women, and smoking is a known risk factor for many life-threatening diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, lung disease and cancer.

The difference between men and women in smoking rates is found in China, where 50% of men smoke compared to 5% of women. In Italy, a study conducted in 2018 showed that smoking is more common among men than women in all age groups.

- The "active" immune response in women

Another factor is the varied immune responses in men and women. Research shows that lifelong immune responses - toward everything from sera to infection and immune diseases - are more active among women than men. With regard to Covid-19, a respiratory disease caused by infection with the emerging coronavirus, this factor may be particularly influential.

Oxford University Professor of Immunology, Philip Golder, said several factors contribute to stronger immune systems in women, among which women have two X chromosomes compared to one in men.

He added that this means that the protein is found at twice the amount in many immune cells in women compared to men, which may in turn enhance the ability of women to avoid "Covid-19".