Asthma not common in COVID-19 patients who have died

Asthma is not among the top 10 chronic health problems in people who have died from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in New York state, even though many health experts have warned that people with asthma are at increased risk for severe illness if they get COVID-19.

Data released this month by New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, show that only about 5 percent of COVID-19 patients who have died had asthma, The New York Times reported. The state said the top 10 comorbid health conditions in COVID-19 patients who have died are: high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, dementia, atrial fibrillation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, cancer, and congestive heart failure.

"We're not seeing a lot of patients with asthma," Bushra Mina, M.D., a pulmonary and critical care physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told The Times. The hospital has treated more than 800 COVID-19 cases. The more common risk factors among COVID-19 patients have been "morbid obesity, diabetes, and chronic heart disease," Mina added.

There is little research on the association between asthma and COVID-19 at the moment, and the findings are not consistent. It is "striking" that asthma appeared "to be underrepresented in the comorbidities reported for patients with COVID-19," a group of European researchers wrote in a recent commentary in The Lancet, The Times reported.

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