A study of 540,000 people showed that one in ten deaths from infectious diseases worldwide is potentially linked to obesity. An analysis of data from two Finnish cohort studies and the UK Biobank found that obese people were 70% more likely to be admitted to hospital or die from infectious and fungal diseases compared to people of a healthy weight. The monitored diseases also included 925 cases of Covid-19, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. In the UK Biobank, 479,498 people were analyzed with an average age of 57 years at baseline, 54% women and 24% obese (BMI > 30). The average length of follow-up was 12.6 years, during which 86 serious infections were recorded. The risk of hospitalization for a serious infection was 1.7 times higher in people with obesity than in people without obesity.