Mortality Due to COVID-19 in Different Countries is Associated with their Demographic Character and Prevalence of Autoimmunity

Chatterjee, Bithika; Karandikar, Rajeeva Laxman; Mande, Shekhar C.

doi:10.18520/cs/v120/i3/501-508

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Based on that information, and based on the known impact of the loss of symbiotic intestinal worms (helminths) associated with hygiene, one of us made a prediction in May of 2020, posted on social media, that infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may not be as deadly in parts of the world without widespread use of toilets and water treatment facilities (www.facebook.com/WilliamParkerLab, last accessed December 17, 2020). This prediction is now supported by several comparative studies examining the impact of COVID-19 in different parts of the world [2][3][4][5][6].…”

Section: Between a Hygiene Rock And A Hygienic Hard Placementioning

confidence: 65%

“…This prediction was made despite the fact that social distancing and cessation of many business practices may be less feasible in lowincome countries than in other countries. Emerging evidence now indicates that people living in areas with endemic exposure to helminths are in fact less impacted by infection with SARS-CoV-2 than are individuals living in high-income countries [2][3][4][5][6]. Numerous post-hoc explanations for this observation that surprised most infectious disease experts have been offered [2], including the presence of relatively fewer elderly and chronically ill individuals in low-income countries.…”

Section: Systems Hygiene and Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Between a hygiene rock and a hygienic hard place

Parker

Sarafian

Broverman

et al. 2021

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

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Suboptimal understanding of concepts related to hygiene by the general public, clinicians, and researchers is a persistent problem in health and medicine. Although hygiene is necessary to slow or prevent deadly pandemics of infectious disease such as COVID-19, hygiene can have unwanted effects. In particular, some aspects of hygiene cause a loss of biodiversity from the human body, characterized by the almost complete removal of intestinal worms (helminths) and protists. Research spanning more than half a century documents that this loss of biodiversity results in an increased propensity for autoimmune disease, allergic disorders, probably neuropsychiatric problems, and adverse reactions to infectious agents. The differences in immune function between communities with and communities without helminths have become so pronounced that the reduced lethality of SARS-CoV-2 in low-income countries compared to high-income countries was predicted early in the COVID-19 pandemic. This prediction, based on the maladaptive immune responses observed in many cases of COVID-19 in high-income countries, is now supported by emerging data from low-income countries. Herein, hygiene is subdivided into components involving personal choice versus components instituted by community wide systems such as sewage treatment facilities and water treatment plants. The different effects of personal hygiene and systems hygiene are described, and appropriate measures to alleviate the adverse effects of hygiene without losing the benefits of hygiene are discussed. Finally, text boxes summarizing this information are provided to function as stand-alone, public-domain handouts with the goal of informing the public about hygiene and suggesting solutions for biomedical researchers and policy makers.

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Section: Between a Hygiene Rock And A Hygienic Hard Placementioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Systems Hygiene and Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Between a hygiene rock and a hygienic hard place

Parker

Sarafian

Broverman

et al. 2021

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

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“…found that demographically, countries with a higher incidence of autoimmune disorders correlated positively with COVID-19 mortality [138]. The prevalence…”

Section: The Immune Defense and The Multiorgan Autoimmunementioning

confidence: 97%

COVID-19 Infection: The Virus and Its Origin, the Variants, the Immune Defense, the Multiorgan Autoimmune Reactions, and the Targeted Treatments

Nguyen¹,

Chan²

2022

AID

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Background: SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the current COVID-19 infection pandemic, has caused substantial damage and negative impacts in the world, including physical sickness, mental illness, death, society lock down, work interruption, and productivity reduction. From the onset in early 2020, the pandemic has not yet totally subsided as of July 2022. Although great efforts have been made to understand the nature of this pandemic by the medical and scientific communities, a comprehensive review of this pandemic has not been reported. Purpose: We aimed to perform a thorough review of the subject in order to come to a better understanding of the origin of the virus, its mutations and their corresponding health effects, its pathophysiology, and its responses to therapeutic intervention. A more comprehensive set of data on these subject matters, if available, would give healthcare providers a valuable tool in formulating the best methods to respond to the current disease and prevent the disease from spreading in the future. Method: An extensive literature search on the subjects of COVID-19 was conducted regarding the possible origin of the viral pathogen, its evolutionary changes and health impacts, the world's responses to COVID-19 and outcomes of their responses, and healthcare professional's actions to understand and manage the disease and the results of their actions. To gather these data, websites of PubMed and Google Scholar were utilized for the search with the following keywords: Pandemic, COVID-19, coronavirus, SARS, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, origin, pathogenesis, and treatment. Results: Our review revealed data that How to cite this paper: Nguyen, V.T. and Chan, L.S. (2022) COVID-19 Infection: The Virus and Its Origin, the Variants, the Immune Defense, the Multiorgan Autoimmune Reactions, and the Targeted Treatments. Advances in Infectious Diseases, 12, 568-631.

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“…Finally, it is worth mentioning the study of Chatterjee et al ( 2021 ) who consider the so called “hygiene hypothesis”, which is in contrast with the expectation that higher quality of the health system provides a mitigation to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. This hypothesis also starts observing that richer countries tend to develop higher hygiene standards, including for example better sanitation, availability of safe drinking water, hand washing facilities, and other similar things.…”

Section: Background Literature On the Interaction Between Economic Structure And Covid-19 Contagionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a hypothesis could explain a possible positive correlation between COVID-19 spread and the levels of wealth across different areas in the World. Chatterjee et al ( 2021 ) develop a multivariate regression analysis including development and demographic variables, sanitation, tropical diseases, and autoimmune disorders as possible explaining factors of the COVID-19 mortality rates observed across the countries Worldwide. A confirmation of such a hypothesis is clearly of high interest, and it can benefit of the inclusion of additional confounding covariates such as the economic structure and the level of import and export (which proxy the level of international mobility of countries), the annual average level of particulate matter pollution.…”

Section: Background Literature On the Interaction Between Economic Structure And Covid-19 Contagionmentioning

confidence: 99%