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A recent publication outlined several pieces of evidence suggesting that glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency may increase susceptibility to, and severity of illness with, COVID-19 infection.1 These include an earlier study showing that G6PD-deficient cells are more susceptible to infection in vitro with another coronavirus (HCoV 229E); increased COVID-19 case fatality rates in Spain and Italy, where G6PD deficiency is more common and is typically caused by a variant with more severe manifestations; increased incidence of COVID-19 in Blacks and Asians in the UK and the USA compared with incidence in Caucasians, given that G6PD deficiency is also more common in people of African descent and Asians; similarity in complications of vascular endothelial dysfunction and coagulopathy in some patients with COVID-19 compared with G6PD-deficient individuals under oxidative stress conditions; and case reports of hemolysis in G6PD-deficient patients following initiation of hydroxychloroquine treatment for COVID-19 infection.
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Footnotes
Contributors DJV is the sole author of this manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.