Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Jul 15;209 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):S120-6.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiu232.

Sex differences in pediatric infectious diseases

Maximilian Muenchhoff  1 , Philip J R Goulder  2
Affiliations
Review

Sex differences in pediatric infectious diseases

Maximilian Muenchhoff et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

The success of the immune response is finely balanced between, on the one hand, the need to engage vigorously with, and clear, certain pathogens; and, on the other, the requirement to minimize immunopathology and autoimmunity. Distinct immune strategies to achieve this balance have evolved in females and males and also in infancy through to adulthood. Sex differences in outcome from a range of infectious diseases can be identified from as early as fetal life, such as in congenital cytomegalovirus infection. The impact of sex hormones on the T-helper 1/T-helper 2 cytokine balance has been proposed to explain the higher severity of most infectious diseases in males. In the minority where greater morbidity and mortality is observed in females, this is hypothesized to arise because of greater immunopathology and/or autoimmunity. However, a number of unexplained exceptions to this rule are described. Studies that have actually measured the sex differences in children in the immune responses to infectious diseases and that would further test these hypotheses, are relatively scarce.

Keywords: gender; infections; pediatric; sex.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Lozano R, Naghavi M, Foreman K, et al. Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2095–128. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anker M. Addressing sex and gender in epidemic-prone infectious diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2007.
    1. Fish EN. The X-files in immunity: sex-based differences predispose immune responses. Nat Rev Immunol. 2008;8:737–44. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Amur S, Parekh A, Mummaneni P. Sex differences and genomics in autoimmune diseases. J Autoimmun. 2012;38:J254–65. - PubMed
    1. Prendergast AJ, Klenerman P, Goulder PJ. The impact of differential antiviral immunity in children and adults. Nat Rev Immunol. 2012;12:636–48. - PubMed

Publication types