Indeed, in more than 72.000 patient cohorts examined, the number of patients defined as asthmatic was low (5), which suggests that asthmatics might be protected from virus-induced SARS, whereas pre-existing hypertensive disease and/or pre-existing antihypertensive treatments may represent a risk factor for increased virus infection, considering that the overall prevalence of hypertension in Chinese adult population ≥18 years of age is estimated to be ~ 23% [11].