Blood clots fill lungs of black coronavirus victims, study finds

But genetic factors could also be at play, the team at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine said.

The findings, published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, may help explain why blacks are suffering so much more from Covid-19 in the US and in some other countries such as Britain, the researchers said.

"We found that the small vessels and capillaries in the lungs were obstructed by blood clots and associated hemorrhage that significantly contributed to decompensation and death in these patients," Dr.

Covid-19 infection generates even more inflammation, which doctors believe is involved in the damage caused by Covid-19 and, perhaps, the generation of blood clots.

All over the US, doctors treating Covid-19 patients are reporting their bodies are riddled with blood clots.

No bacteria or fungi had jumped onto the viral bandwagon to infect them.

"We also note that two of our patients were aged 40-50 years, younger than those generally thought to be at risk of death due to Covid-19," the researchers wrote.

The findings may shed light on why blacks in general are suffering more from Covid-19 in the UK, Dennis McGonagle of the University of Leeds and colleagues wrote in a linked commentary.

"A feature of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been an increased mortality in Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic groups in the UK, which has resulted in the UK Government setting up an emergency investigative task force," they wrote.

"In the USA, mortality from COVID-19 has been particularly high in African American communities in large cities."

A study from New Orleans in the New England Journal of Medicine, also published Wednesday, found a disproportionate number of Covid-19 hospital patients were African American.