• Question: Why do some healthy people with a good immune system suffer more from Covid-19 than some older people with a bad immune system?

    Asked by anon-256919 on 24 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Cameron Stockwell

      Cameron Stockwell answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      The amount of virus is factor which can play into disease severity. A really good immune system is likely to create something called a cytokine storm, this causes a large immune response and effectively causes the lungs to inflame and can result in different severity of disease. COVID-19 is a very new disease, and questions like this still aren’t full understood but we are learning more each day

    • Photo: Rachel Tanner

      Rachel Tanner answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      Hi Pepe, thanks for your question! You’re right that this has happened occassionally – although it is rare, and much more likely that older people with underlying health problems will get sicker. Some scientists are studying whether there is a link to people’s genetics that might make them more likely to get sick with COVID-19 even though they’re healthy. Or, as Cameron said, it might be that their immune response reacts in a certain way that is actually detrimental. We still have a lot to find out about this virus!

Comments

  • modlucia commented on :

    IMPORTANT: This question and its answers are about the COVID-19 virus. The information on this page might be out of date or wrong.
    For up-to-date health information and advice, please go to the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

  • Photo: Valerie

    Valerie commented on :

    This is a really good question and it’s something that is still being researched as the answer might help us save a lot of lives.

    One thing to consider in addition to the above answers is that our immune systems need to be trained. We are born with the right system in place, but it needs to learn what is you and what is foreign. Autoimmune disorders are an example of when this goes wrong.
    In the case of Covid-19 it may be that some people have previously experienced something which allowed their immune system to react faster or better than other people regardless of how ‘good’ each person’s overall immune system is.