Lighting up the virus –

Sep. 19, 2020 – Study co-author Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, said people with addiction disorders often have compromised lungs and cardiovascular systems, which may contribute to their heightened susceptibility for COVID-19.

“Another contributing factor is the marginalization of people with addiction, which makes it harder for them to access health care services,” she said in a news release from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Black people with a recent opioid use disorder diagnosis had more than four times the risk of COVID-19 than white people, the study found. High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease — all risk factors for COVID-19 — were more common among Black patients than whites with opioid use disorder.

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