Asian patients at higher risk of death from Covid-19: Here's why

A study reveals that people from minority ethnic groups are more severely affected by Covid-19. Read on to know the possible factors that contribute to the impact of Covid-19 on minority communities.

The novel coronavirus, which is responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, affects different people differently. According to a new study, minority ethnic patients bear a higher burden of the disease than white patients. It said that while those of Black ethnicity are more likely to require hospital admission for the disease, Asian patients have an increased risk of dying in hospital from Covid-19.

This suggests that different treatment strategies may be required for different ethnic groups.

"For Black patients, the issue may be how to prevent mild infection progressing to severe whereas for Asian patients it may be how to treat life-threatening complications," IANS quoted Ajay Shah, one of the study authors, as saying. Shah is the Professor of Cardiology at King's College London and Consultant Cardiologist at King's College Hospital.

The study was published in the journal EclinicalMedicine.

Relationship between ethnic background and SARS-CoV-2

For the study, the researchers analysed data from 1,827 adult patients admitted to King's College Hospital, south-east London, with a primary diagnosis of Covid-19 between March 1 and June 2, 2020.

Out of the 872 admitted patients from inner south-east London, 48.1 per cent were found to be of Black ethnicity, 33.7 per cent White, 12.6 per cent Mixed and 5.6 per cent Asian ethnicity.

The analysis showed that Black and Mixed ethnicity patients have a three-fold higher risk of hospital admission due to Covid-19 compared to White inner-city residents of the same region. However, when it comes to in-hospital survival, there was no significant difference between Black patients and white patients.

According to the analysis, Asian patients lave a lower risk of requiring hospital admission with Covid-19 than the other groups. But Asian patients were most likely to die in the hospital from Covid-19 and require intensive care unit admission as compared to the other groups.

Why minority ethnic patients are more severely affected by Covid-19?

Based on the analysis of the data of Covid-19 patients, the researchers said that there is a higher prevalence of comorbidities, especially diabetes, among the minority ethnic patients.

Apart from comorbidities and socioeconomic factors, biological factors may also contribute to the impact of Covid-19 on minority communities, the study suggested.

The researchers, however, called for more research to prove this finding on multi-ethnic populations in other countries.

In August, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that said most of the people hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were black. The coronavirus also killed more black people across the U.S. than White people, it stated.

One possible reason for this difference is that many people of color work in essential industries such as nursing or home health care, grocery stores and mass transit. This increases their risk of exposure to people who are sick.

As these jobs are often poorly paid, they also lack health or life insurance. In addition, many black, Latinx and indigenous communities have high rates of underlying health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. These health conditions are known risk factors for severe illness and death from COVID-19.

With inputs from agencies