Corona virus: what’s the secret to the low number of virus deaths in India?

A joint study by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, found that nearly three billion people – about 40 percent of the world’s population, and almost most of them ‘of them live in developing countries – do not have “basic facilities for washing hands”.

That was enough to raise fears that the coronavirus could kill people in developing countries and lead to millions of deaths in countries like India.

Usually, health care, hygiene and sanitation facilities in poor countries are not adequately available, and this is often thought to be a contributing factor to the high incidence of infectious diseases in these countries.

“It was not surprising that Covid-19 had serious consequences in low and middle income countries,” says Shekhar Mandi, director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in India.

The Indian population represents one sixth of the world’s population and one sixth of reported cases. But it is only responsible for 10% of deaths worldwide due to infection with the virus.

The death rate from the Corona virus is less than 2%, and this percentage is among the lowest in the world.

And new research by Indian scientists indicates that lack of hygiene, lack of clean water and unsanitary conditions may have saved many lives from the dangerous Covid-19 epidemic.

In other words, they mean that people who live in low- and middle-income countries may be able to ward off severe cases of the dangerous Covid 19 virus due to their exposure to viruses and germs that cause various diseases since childhood, which gives them stronger immunity against Covid 19 disease.

The two studies – which have not yet been reviewed – looked at death rates per million population to compare death rates.

One study compared available data on the population of 106 people that addressed dozens of criteria such as population density, demographics, disease prevalence and level of health systems. Researchers have found that death rates from Covid-19 infection are higher in high-income countries.

“It appears that the low-income poor have a better immune response to the disease than their high-income peers,” said Dr Mandy, one of the study’s authors.

The second study looked at the role played by the microbiome – the trillions of microbes inside the human body – in infection with Covid 19. The microbiome consists of bacteria, viruses, fungi and monocytes, and facilitates the digestion process, protects against pathogenic bacteria, regulates the immune system and produces vitamins.

Praveen Kumar and Pal Chander of the Government Medical College of Dr Rajendra Prasad examined data from 122 countries, including 80 high and middle income countries.

The two doctors explained that deaths from Covid 19 infection are lower in countries that have a higher number of people exposed to various groups of microbes, especially the so-called ‘Gram-negative bacteria’.

These bacteria are usually responsible for acute lung infections, blood, urinary tract infections, and skin infections. But it is also believed to produce an antiviral cytokine – bodies that help fight pathogens – called an antiviral that protects cells from the coronavirus.

“Until now, the impact of the Covid 19 virus on the immune status of the population resulting from the microbiome or exposure to environmental microbes has not been taken into account,” said Chander Lee.

Scientists believe it ultimately has something to do with the hygiene hypothesis.

The general idea is that our environment has become completely clean, so our immune system is not sufficiently trained.

According to Matt Rachel, author of Elegant Defense: The unusual new science of the immune system that we deprive our immune systems of from training and activity by focusing on hygiene is not a new idea in and of itself.

A research study on seasonal allergies published in 1989 found a striking association between the likelihood of children having this fever and a number of family members.

The study said that seasonal allergic illnesses avoided in early childhood are spread later through unhealthy contact with older children, or that mothers can catch them before birth through contact with their older children.

And another study by the United Nations Allergy Pathology Organization, cited by Rachel, said migration studies have shown that the types of “allergies and immunity” increase as people get worse. move from poorer countries to richer countries.

Smita Ayer, an immunologist at the University of California, believes that the “hygiene hypothesis” for Covid-19 “conflicts with our understanding of immune responses against viruses.”

“However, by realizing that our immune system can confront huge numbers of enemies in relatively rapid succession or even simultaneously, we can propose a model in which immune responses to pathogens encountered previously or now can influence the immune response to invaders. “, she added. Current “.

Scientists say these studies should be viewed as mere observational observations. In addition, “it should not be inferred that we are calling for poorer hygiene practices to deal with future epidemics,” says Dr Mandy.

Krotika Copale, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Medicine of South Carolina, says the new research takes into account a variety of hypotheses that have not been proven. “These are more hypotheses than scientific facts.”

In addition, epidemiologists have attributed the low death rate in countries like India to the fact that young people make up a large proportion of the population compared to rich countries – the elderly are generally more vulnerable – and it is not. not clear if other factors, such as immunity resulting from previous infections with other Corona viruses are responsible for this as well.

It is clear that various reasons can have a low death rate.

“We still have a lot to learn about the virus because we have only been treating it for 10 months,” says Professor Copale. The truth is, there is a lot that we don’t know.