Published in:
01-12-2021 | Coronavirus | Review
Obesity and COVID-19: what makes obese host so vulnerable?
Authors:
Sameer Mohammad, Rafia Aziz, Saeed Al Mahri, Shuja Shafi Malik, Esraa Haji, Altaf Husain Khan, Tanvir Saleem Khatlani, Abderrezak Bouchama
Published in:
Immunity & Ageing
|
Issue 1/2021
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Abstract
The disease (COVID-19) novel coronavirus pandemic has so far infected millions resulting in the death of over a million people as of Oct 2020. More than 90% of those infected with COVID-19 show mild or no symptoms but the rest of the infected cases show severe symptoms resulting in significant mortality. Age has emerged as a major factor to predict the severity of the disease and mortality rates are significantly higher in elderly patients. Besides, patients with underlying conditions like Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and cancer have an increased risk of severe disease and death due to COVID-19 infection. Obesity has emerged as a novel risk factor for hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. Several independent studies have observed that people with obesity are at a greater risk of severe disease and death due to COVID-19. Here we review the published data related to obesity and overweight to assess the possible risk and outcome in Covid-19 patients based on their body weight. Besides, we explore how the obese host provides a unique microenvironment for disease pathogenesis, resulting in increased severity of the disease and poor outcome.