Immunity & Ageing (Jan 2021)

Obesity and COVID-19: what makes obese host so vulnerable?

  • Sameer Mohammad,
  • Rafia Aziz,
  • Saeed Al Mahri,
  • Shuja Shafi Malik,
  • Esraa Haji,
  • Altaf Husain Khan,
  • Tanvir Saleem Khatlani,
  • Abderrezak Bouchama

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-020-00212-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract The disease (COVID-19) novel coronavirus pandemic has so far infected millions resulting in the death of over a million people as of Oct 2020. More than 90% of those infected with COVID-19 show mild or no symptoms but the rest of the infected cases show severe symptoms resulting in significant mortality. Age has emerged as a major factor to predict the severity of the disease and mortality rates are significantly higher in elderly patients. Besides, patients with underlying conditions like Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and cancer have an increased risk of severe disease and death due to COVID-19 infection. Obesity has emerged as a novel risk factor for hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. Several independent studies have observed that people with obesity are at a greater risk of severe disease and death due to COVID-19. Here we review the published data related to obesity and overweight to assess the possible risk and outcome in Covid-19 patients based on their body weight. Besides, we explore how the obese host provides a unique microenvironment for disease pathogenesis, resulting in increased severity of the disease and poor outcome.

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