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Review
. 2020 Dec;13(12):1833-1839.
doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2020.07.014. Epub 2020 Aug 4.

COVID-19 and comorbidities: Deleterious impact on infected patients

Hasan Ejaz  1 , Abdullah Alsrhani  2 , Aizza Zafar  3 , Humera Javed  3 , Kashaf Junaid  2 , Abualgasim E Abdalla  4 , Khalid O A Abosalif  4 , Zeeshan Ahmed  5 , Sonia Younas  6
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 and comorbidities: Deleterious impact on infected patients

Hasan Ejaz et al. J Infect Public Health. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

The pandemic situation with the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from China has endangered human lives. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is presented with asymptomatic, mild, or severe pneumonia-like symptoms. COVID-19 patients with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), hypertension, malignancies, HIV, and other comorbidities could develop a life-threatening situation. SARS-CoV-2 utilizes ACE-2 receptors found at the surface of the host cells to get inside the cell. Certain comorbidities are associated with a strong ACE-2 receptor expression and higher release of proprotein convertase that enhances the viral entry into the host cells. The comorbidities lead to the COVID-19 patient into a vicious infectious circle of life and are substantially associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The comorbid individuals must adopt the vigilant preventive measure and require scrupulous management. In this review, we rigorously focused on the impact of common morbidities in COVID-19 patients and recapitulated the management strategies with recent directions. We found limited resources describing the association of comorbidities in COVID-19; however, our review delineates the broader spectrum of comorbidities with COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cardiovascular diseases; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Comorbidities; Diabetes; SARS-CoV-2.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
This figure depicts the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 as it is transmitted from bat through pangolin as an intermediate host and transferred from human to human. The virus utilizes the ACE-2 receptor present in alveolar cells in the lungs, hepatocytes, and kidneys, and affects the host's biochemistry by entering cells. SARS-CoV-2 causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) by entering into the lungs and generating cytokine storms, which can affect the circulatory system that leads to morbidity and mortality.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The frequency of comorbidity and its fatality in COVID-19 infections [13,29,32,34,37,41,51,52].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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