A small percentage of people have a genetic predisposition to the severe course of coronavirus infection, even if the patient does not have chronic diseases. Anch Baranova, a biologist at the School of Systems Biology at George Mason University, told about this in an interview with Lenta.ru.
According to her, such people with genetically weakened immunity are about 3-5% of the population, “regardless of whether they have diabetes or obesity.”
“I mean exactly the risk of a severe course, that is, the development of a cytokine storm, and not just infection,” the scientist explained.
At the same time, Baranova noted that it is difficult to do DNA tests for such a predisposition in ordinary laboratories.
The biologist added that if it was possible to pass exome sequencing, that is, the determination of the sequence of DNA and RNA, then the geneticist will be able to give an opinion on the risks of a severe course of COVID-19.
Earlier in December, the secretary general of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg) Silvestro Scotti said that those who recovered from the coronavirus may experience chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, and psychological problems, which are especially prone to young people.
In mid-November, Olga Tkacheva, the chief freelance geriatrician of the Russian Ministry of Health, in a conversation with Izvestia, noted that the severity of the possible severe course of COVID-19 in older people may be indicated by the severity of senile asthenia syndrome, which is manifested by weakness, loss of appetite, and a tendency to fall.