Smokers beware. At least during this time of pandemic.
Smokers and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have an increased risk of severe complications and higher mortality with COVID-19 infection, another study says.
Earlier also several studies have pointed out the increased risk of infection of coronavirus and mortality among the smokers. The present study has been done by Jaber Alqahtani of University College London, UK, and colleagues.
Critically ill COVID-19 patients with COPD had a 63% risk of severe disease and a 60% risk of mortality while critically ill patients without COPD had only a 33.4% risk of severe disease, as per the study. In addition, the smokers were 1.45 times more likely to have severe complications compared to former and never smokers.
The authors add: “Despite the low prevalence of COPD and smoking in COVID-19 cases, COPD and current smokers were associated with greater COVID-19 severity and mortality.”
