Prevalence of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Trends of COVID-19 and their Aggressiveness among Various Gender and Age Groups Due to Smoking

Abstract

COVID-19 remains a global threat and many developed countries are still troubled by the COVID-19 pandemic. During first wave of COVID-19, about 23 million people tested positive for the virus, worldwide. Hence, the factors that contribute towards enhancing the COVID-19 burden must be assessed. In the current study, RT-PCR testing method was used for the detection of COVID-19. Specimens used to detect the infection comprised nasopharyngeal swabs. After their collection, the specimens were processed further for the extraction of RNA and PCR. About 60% of sampled patients tested positive and 40% tested negative for COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 prevalence was found to be higher in male patients than female patients. Among COVID-19 positive individuals, 70% were smokers and 30% were non-smokers. Positive cases were more frequent in the age group of 40-60 years. Moreover, only 30% of the patients showed symptoms of COVID-19. Keeping in view the above statistics, it is safe to assume that smokers are more prone to infection by COVID-19 which was found to be more prevalent in men, mainly targeting their elderly population. A major portion of COVID-19 positive patients didn’t show any symptoms. It was concluded that asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 are a silent threat to the world.