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Covid-19 long-haulers are mostly women: Report

Those hospitalised with serious cases of Covid were largely men, but women tended to carry the virus longer, according to the report
Last Updated 14 June 2021, 18:38 IST

A strange pattern has surfaced ever since early reports of Covid-19 started pouring in around June, 2020.

The reports suggested that those hospitalised with serious cases of Covid-19 were largely men, usually above the age of 50, whereas those underdoing long spells of the infection were mostly women.

Following studies at a Paris hospital conducted during May-July in 2020, Covid long haulers were seen to be mainly women (average age of 40) who outnumbered men by 4 to 1, according to The Guardian.

This pattern has only received more confirmation over the past year as it was observed in Covid cases around the world from Russia to Bangladesh: Women tend to be Covid long haulers.

An overwhelming 60 per cent of a Colorado doctor’s patients at a post-Covid care clinic were women.

“This pattern has been seen in other post-infectious syndromes,” said Dr Melissa Heightman, from the UCLH post-Covid care clinic, North London.

“Around 66 per cent of our patients have been women. A lot of them were in full-time jobs, have young children, and now more than a quarter of them are completely unable to work because they’re so unwell. Economically, it’s a bit of a catastrophe.”

Swedish researcher Dr Petter Brodin, who leads the long Covid arm of the Covid Human Genetic Effort global consortium, fears the percentage of women long-haulers were even greater, 70-80 per cent.

“In general, there’s not as much research money and attention on conditions that primarily affect women,” says Julie Nusbaum, assistant professor at NYU Long Island School of Medicine, according to The Guardian.

“That’s just a general disparity in medical research. I think certain biases persist that when women present with a lot of body aches or pains, there’s more often an emotional or personality component to it than medical origin.”

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(Published 14 June 2021, 10:55 IST)

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