The coronavirus is known with certainty that it emerged in China in November and has since spread to almost the entire world, where it has infected more than 5 million people and killed at least 356,000. Older adults are more at risk, and there is still no treatment or vaccine for this condition.
Today it produces more questions than answers, something to be expected, since these pathogens move faster than scientific research. We compiled the ten new questions from the last weeks and what is known about them.
1. Why do healthy young people die?
The most popular hypothesis is that the genetic profile could play an important role, especially those genes involved in the immune system. A father who died young of an infectious disease is known to put his children at risk for a similar outcome. A study by the company Oxford Biodynamics with 300 covid-19 patients showed that in the genetic profile of each there are subtle signs to better understand why some are severely affected.
Oxford Biodynamics PLC (LON:OBD) was spun out from Oxford University in June 2007 with the aim of translating fundamental scientific advances into a commercialised platform technology and a new generation of biomarkers for cancer, ALS and other diseases.