COVID-19 in underlying COPD patients

The devastating social and economic effects which have resulted from the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic have caused a global health crisis affecting tens of millions of people and pushing scores of them into poverty. The disease is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes viral pneumonia and is known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (Sohrabi et al., 2020). As of 21st December 2020, more than 77 million people were affected with COVID-19 and nearly 1.6 million people have lost their lives (Coronavirus Worldmeter), with mortality rates being higher in older adults and frail individuals (Chinnadurai et al., 2020). In a recent report Ioannidis and colleagues (2020) reported that the mortality rate among patients of < 70 years of age is less compared with patients above 70 years of age. The disease may either be asymptomatic or symptomatic, with signs varying from common cold, flu like symptoms such as cough, fever, and fatigue to severe shortness of breath, pneumonia, and respiratory failure. In addition to severe clinical course, mortality rates are higher in patients with pre-existing conditions such as coronary vascular diseases, hypertension, and diabetes, immunocompromised conditions, and elderly patients (Zhou et al., 2020). Importantly, patients with underlying respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are presumed to be more susceptible to COVID-19 and are most likely to suffer from critical clinical complications, requiring intensive care.