It is one of the biggest mysteries of the corona crisis: why do so many people remain without symptoms, while others end up in intensive care? Slowly it is becoming increasingly clear how it is. Het Parool writes about this.
Genetically
Your reaction to corona is partly genetic. For example, it was announced last week that an international research group in the DNA of Italian and Spanish corona patients has found two places that lead to an increased risk of a serious course of the disease. “You also get the increased risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid-19 from your parents,” says professor of genetics Lude Franke of the UMCG in Groningen in het Parool.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle also plays a role. British research showed that 70 percent of the patients on the IC were overweight. Smokers also have worse prospects. In addition, there are of course the underlying conditions: almost half of the deceased corona patients had cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure. A quarter had diabetes and another quarter had chronic lung disease.
Furthermore, more than 60 percent of the included patients were men, just like 55 percent of the deceased. This is partly because men more often have underlying diseases and because women have a defense system that is more resistant to viruses.
Cold viruses
Professor of immunology Huub Savelkoul of the University of Wageningen also mentions another important aspect, which cold viruses someone has already had. That is stated in ‘a wonderful paper’ by American researchers, it sounds.
Covid-19 is part of a family of coronaviruses, which also includes four harmless cold viruses. “They are responsible for 35 percent of all common colds,” says Savelkoul. “Those viruses are a bit like the new corona virus. Imagine that one virus is wearing a green jacket, another virus is wearing a red jacket, yet another is wearing a yellow, orange or blue. At some point the color no longer matters and the immune system recognizes a jacket and then it makes antibodies. This is also how it works with the new corona virus. They call it a cross-reaction. That’s not the same as immunity, but a cross-reaction means you also have a chance to get some protection against that virus. ”
So there are a lot of factors that determine how sick you get from the current corona virus. If all cards fall wrong, you can end up on the IC, but the vast majority of people are released with shock.
Bron(nen): The Parool
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