Coronavirus risk for Asians, Africans, Caucasians revealed

Coronavirus: High Risk for Asians compared to Europeans & Africans
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What is your risk to get infected coronavirus?

East Asians, Japanese, and Han Chinese are the most likely people to become severely sick by the coronavirus with a chance of more than 90% when exposed. Europeans only rank in the 50%, Africans in the 60% range, and considered low to medium. It also makes a difference if one is a smoker or non-smoker.

The Travel and Tourism industry is in turmoil. Tourism leaders don’t want anyone to panic, but the story doesn’t yet have an end to it.

At the same time, researchers are working around the clock to learn more about the deadly virus. Recent studies may explain why Europe, America had no deadly cases of the virus, and no coronavirus cases at all were reported from Africa.

Stopping travel may not be the solution and could only mean travel businesses could become collateral damage in the fight against coronavirus. The World Health Organization always said “do not stop travel and commerce.”, even after WHO declared a global epidemic emergency.

Why is this?
Theย novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) was identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December of 2019.

This new coronavirus has resulted in thousands of cases of lethal disease in China, with additional patients being identified in a rapidly growing number internationally.

2019-nCov was reported to share the same receptor, Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), with SARS-Cov.

Here based on the public database and the state-of-the-art single-cell RNA-Seq technique, the ACE2 RNA expression profile in the normal human lungs. The result indicates that the ACE2 virus receptor expression is concentrated in a small population of type II alveolar cells (AT2).

Surprisingly, studies found that this population of ACE2-expressing AT2 also highly expressed many other genes that positively regulating viral reproduction and transmission.

A comparison between eight individual samples demonstrated that the Asian male one has an extremely large number of ACE2-expressing cells in the lung. This is based on an unfinished study by Yuย Zhao,ย Zixianย Zhao,ย Yujiaย Wang,ย Yueqingย Zhou,ย Yuย Ma,ย Weiย Zuo and published by Bio Rxiv:

A second study investigates how and why the virus will enter the human body, by Michaelย Letko,ย Vincentย Munster

Apparently the coronavirus enters a human body through some connection with something called the ACE2 receptor. East Asians and men have more than say white Europeans and women. Being a white woman seems to be the way to have much lesser risk.

According to this study and based on the assumption in this study and in regards to the receptor, Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, human populations where samples were available were categorized by risk in obtaining a dangerous version of the virus. Most ill may not feel more than a common cold, for others Coronavirus can be fatal.

According to this preliminary study the risk of obtaining the virus:

High risk 90%-99%
Japanese in Tokyo, Japan
Southern Han Chinese
Kinh in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Han Chinese in Bejing, China
Chinese Dai in Xishuangbanna, China

Moderate Risk: 80-89%
Not found

Medium to Moderate Risk: 70-79%
Peruvians from Lima, Peru
Bengali from Bangladesh
Sri Lankan Tamil from the UK
Indian Telgu from the UK
Mexican Ancestry from Los Angeles, USA
South Asians (general average)

Medium Risk: 60-69%
Gujarati Indians from Houston, TX
Admixed Americans
Americans of African Ancestry in SW USA
Punjabi from Lahore, Pakistan
African Caribbeans in Barbados
Luhya in Webuye, Kenya
Mende in Sierra Leona
Africans (general average)
Esan in Nigeria
British in U.K.
Gambians in Western Division in The Gambia
Puerto Ricans

Low to Medium Risk: 50-59%
Colombians from Medellin
Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria
Finnish in Finland
Iberian Population in Spain
Europeans (in General)
Utah Residence (Caucasians)
Toscani, Italy

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Coronavirus: Asians at high risk compared to Europeans  & Africans

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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