It remains a mystery to scientists: why does one die of corona, while the other does not even notice that he has had the virus. Sure, risk factors have been identified: age, weight, gender, and underlying conditions, but that only explains part of the story. The innate immune system may also play a role. About that writes de Volkskrant.
Kenya
For example, Sophie Uyoga of the African research institute Kemri discovered this summer that one in twenty of thousands of Kenyan blood donors had antibodies against Covid-19. So there would be about the same number of infections in Kenya as in the Netherlands. But where we had overcrowded ICs and at least 9,000 deaths, in Kenya (more than 50 million inhabitants) only a hundred people died from the corona virus.
And take India: there are 80,000 infections per day, but a total of only 1,200 deaths in a population of 1.3 billion. Mozambique and Cameroon: the same story.
Malaria
Africans and Indians are certainly younger on average. Less testing is done and not every corona death will end up in the statistics as such, but still: even if you correct for it, the figures are remarkable. Professor of microbiology Yap Boum of Mbarara University in Uganda has another explanation: “We think that the exposure we have to infectious diseases, of which malaria and pneumonia are the most common, strengthens our immunity,” he says in de Volkskrant.
The Nijmegen professor of experimental medicine Mihai Netea does not rule this out. “We live in a sterile environment. Their immune system is constantly being trained. It could very well be that when the umpteenth virus comes along, it will only make them slightly ill. ”
Innate defenses
The innate immune system may play a role, suspects, among others, professor of medical microbiology Marc Bonten (UMC Utrecht). “There has to be something in the host that makes the clinical picture so different. Because the virus is always the same. In fact, everything indicates that it has something to do with your immune system. ”
It would also explain why women are twice as likely to die from a corona infection as men. Scientists from the American research program Women’s Health Research reported last week that women naturally use less of certain inflammatory proteins against the virus. This reduces the risk of a life-threatening chain reaction of the immune system (cytokine storm). Such an aspect of the natural defenses could also play a role in other less severely affected population groups.
Bron(nen): De Volkskrant (€)
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