Women faces higher risk of fatality from Covid-19 than men in India

More men have succumbed to death all around the globe since the emergence of coronavirus.

However, this might not be the case in India.

In Italy, China and US, for example, more men have been infected, and a higher proportion of men have died.

A group of scientists in India and US shows that although men make up the majority of infections, women face a higher risk of dying from the coronavirus than men.

The study, based on Covid-19 deaths in India until 20 May, shows early estimates that 3.3% of all women contracting the infection in India were dying compared to 2.9% of all men. (India had a caseload of more than 110,000 with 3,433 deaths and a fatality rate of 3.1% when the study was conducted.)

In the 40-49 age group, 3.2% of the infected women have died, compared to 2.1% of men. Only females have died in the 5-19 age group.

Experts claims that the number will be scrutinize to assure the damage done by Covid-19.

Women outlive men in India and there are more older women than men. Is this leading to more deaths among women, as elderly people are vulnerable to the infection?

Also, women in India are more likely to delay going to doctors, and often self-medicate at home. And a woman’s health is more likely to be ignored in a household. So are women arriving late for testing and treatment?

Homemaker caregivers are more prone to contracting the infection – during the 1918 Spanish flu more women in India – relatively undernourished, cooped up in unhygienic and ill-ventilated dwellings, and nursing the sick – died than men.