People who smoke or have COPD may be at increased risk for severe complications and death from COVID-19.
Patients with COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are nearly twice as likely to experience severe illness.
Researchers found that critically ill COVID-19 patients with COPD had a 63% risk of severe disease.
According to UPI, those same critically ill patients also had 60% risk of death.
Critically ill patients without COPD had a 33.4%t risk of severe disease and 55% risk of death.
Current smokers were 1.45 times more likely to have severe complications compared to former and non-smokers.