Large variations in disease severity, death and ICU admission of 2993 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2: The potential impact of genetic vulnerability

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immeasurable impact, affecting healthcare systems, the global economy, and society. Exploration of trends within the existing COVID-19 data may guide directions for further study and novel treatment development. As the world faces COVID-19 disease, it is essential to study its epidemiological and clinical characteristics further to better understand and aid in its detection and containment. Methods We aimed to study the clinical characteristics of patients infected with COVID-19 in Dubai, a multi-national Society. Results Our findings demonstrate that during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, age, gender, and country of origin were associated with more severe cases of COVID-19, higher risk for hospitalization and death. Male individuals between 41 and 60 years of age from India had the most significant hospitalization and death predictor (p = .0001). The predictors for COVID-19 related deaths were slightly less than UAE Nationals by individuals from GCC (p = .02) that were followed closely behind by Pilipino (p = .02) and Arabs (p = .001). Conclusion The vulnerability of individuals to infection and in the spectrum of COVID-19 symptoms remains to be understood. There are large variations in disease severity, one component of which may be genetic variability in responding to the virus. Genomics of susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and the wide variation in clinical response to COVID-19 in patients should become active investigation areas.