Asthma and COVID-19: a systematic review

• Published in: Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 5 - 12
• Main Authors: Mendes, Natália F., Jara, Carlos P., Mansour, Eli, Araújo, Eliana P., Velloso, Licio A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 06.01.2021; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Allergies; Allergology; Allergy; Asthma; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Communicable diseases; Coronavirus; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Development and progression; Diabetes; Disease; Editorials; Hypertension; Immunology; Lung; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Patients; Pneumology/Respiratory System; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory insufficiency; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Short Report; Systematic review; China; Allergy; SARS-CoV-2; Coronavirus; Respiratory insufficiency; Lung
• ISSN: 1710-1492; 1710-1484; 1710-1492
• DOI: 10.1186/s13223-020-00509-y

Background Severe coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) presents with progressive dyspnea, which results from acute lung inflammatory edema leading to hypoxia. As with other infectious diseases that affect the respiratory tract, asthma has been cited as a potential risk factor for severe COVID-19. However, conflicting results have been published over the last few months and the putative association between these two diseases is still unproven. Methods Here, we systematically reviewed all reports on COVID-19 published since its emergence in December 2019 to June 30, 2020, looking into the description of asthma as a premorbid condition, which could indicate its potential involvement in disease progression. Results We found 372 articles describing the underlying diseases of 161,271 patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Asthma was reported as a premorbid condition in only 2623 patients accounting for 1.6% of all patients. Conclusions As the global prevalence of asthma is 4.4%, we conclude that either asthma is not a premorbid condition that contributes to the development of COVID-19 or clinicians and researchers are not accurately describing the premorbidities in COVID-19 patients.