Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Alliance Against COVID-19: One Step Forward
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PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE
Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Alliance Against COVID-19: One Step Forward Mohamed H. Ahmed 1 Received: 29 May 2020 / Revised: 28 July 2020 / Accepted: 29 July 2020 # W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute 2020
Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, the data of Department of Health in United Kingdom (UK) showed an increase mortality and morbidity among the Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population. This high mortality can be due to social factors, genetic and immunological factors. Metabolic factors like high prevalence of diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and hypertension were also found to contribute to the increased risk of COVID-19 infection in BAME population. In addition, a large number of BAME population are working in jobs that involve regular and daily contact with public, and this may increase risk of encountering COVID-19 infection. Therefore, future research should address all these factors and generate the correct health policy that will allow us to combat the danger of COVID-19. We recommend the establishment of BAME alliance against COVID-19 in order to improve occupational risks and hazards, adequate income protection, culturally and linguistically appropriate public health communications and decreasing barriers in accessing healthcare. The BAME alliance will initially focus on (i) development of central system to record data about COVID-19 patients from BAME population (ii) involvement of healthcare professionals and researchers from ethnic minorities and (iii) multidisciplinary and inter-institution collaboration; for example, civil engineers and architects need to think about house design and ventilation that decrease risk of COVID-19 especially in BAME populations. Keywords COVID-19 . BAME . Social factors . Diabetes . Hypertension
Introduction The definition of ethnicity is complex and not easy as it can involve the commonalities within a group or as differences from ‘other’ groups [1]. Burchard et al. defined ethnicity as ‘a related but broader construct encompassing culture, tradition, religion and shared heritage’, while they define race as ‘a socio-political construct and classification system based on the geographic origin of a person’s ancestry’ [2]. The variations in genetic mapping, immune system, behaviour and metabolic disorders may render certain ethnic group more suceptible to a certain disease [3]. For example, COVOID-19 was associated an increased morbidity and mortality among BAME population [3, 4]. The high
* Mohamed H. Ahmed [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Department of Medicine and HIV Metabolic Clinic, Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Eaglestone, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK
prevalence of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity and hypertension in BAME population was suggested as an additional risk for COVID-19 infection [3–5]. Different social factors can be included as BAME represent almost all ethnic groups from around the world. Deprivation and poverty are well-established factors associated
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