Do chronic respiratory diseases or their treatment affect the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection?
David M G Halpin，Rosa Faner，Oriol Sibila，Joan Ramon Badia，Alvar Agusti
Published:April 03, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30167-3
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is an acute respiratory disease that can lead to respiratory failure and death.1 Previous epidemics of novel coronavirus diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), were associated with similar clinical features and outcomes.2 One might anticipate that patients with chronic respiratory diseases, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, would be at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and more severe presentations of COVID-19. However, it is striking that both diseases appear to be under-represented in the comorbidities reported for patients with COVID-19, compared with the global burden of disease estimates of the prevalence of these conditions in the general population (table); a similar pattern was seen with SARS. By contrast, the prevalence of diabetes in patients with COVID-19 or SARS is as high as or higher than the estimated national prevalence, as might be expected.
