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This is why a 16-year-old dies of corona and an 89-year-old …

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French Julie was sixteen and completely healthy until the corona virus hit her. In the meantime, some people in their eighties and even some in their nineties survive the virus. Why does a 16-year-old die from corona and an 89-year-old survives? Bruce Poppe, professor of Human Genetics at Ghent University, explains.

French Julie was sixteen and completely healthy, until the corona virus hit her: the teenager did not survive. British Cloë was twenty-one and just as healthy as Julie, yet she also died of corona. Giancarlo from Brussels was forty and very sporty: he also succumbed to corona.

Contrary to the initial assumption that it was only life-threatening for the elderly and people with poor health, the virus appears to be inexorable for all age groups. And at the same time: according to samples at UZ Brussel, ten percent of the population is now infected.

Also read: Julie (16) is youngest victim of corona in France: “It started with a cough”

This means that there are other reasons than just age and underlying conditions why some people get seriously ill and even die and others get off with a cough and feverish night.

Immune system overreacts

“We still know too little about the virus to know exactly why one gets sick and the other doesn’t. But it is equivalent to what we see in other infections: the immune system response can vary greatly from patient to patient and thus determines the course of the disease. Sometimes the immune system can even overreact, which can also be extremely harmful and even life-threatening, ”says Professor Bruce Poppe. He is associate professor of Human Genetics at UGent and coordinator of the multidisciplinary team that deals with rare diseases at UZ Gent.

Poppe refers to the Lübeck Disaster. In 1930, 251 newborn babies in the hospital received a tuberculosis vaccine, but the vaccine was contaminated with real tuberculosis bacteria: 77 children died, 127 became ill and healed, but 47 of them had no symptoms at all.

“That taught us that people can all react differently to an infection. Researchers later found this also in HIV: some people were susceptible, while others were quasi-resistant. A virus like HIV uses proteins from the host to enter cells. It has been shown in HIV that in people who became less easily infectious, a certain protein was less present. ”

Determine susceptibility

In the long term, it should therefore be possible to determine susceptibility to the coronavirus in a genetic profile, says Professor Poppe. “Now it is difficult to determine the evolution of an infected patient. Who will experience few complaints? Who could end up in intensive care? Genetic research could provide insight into this. But we are not there yet, for the sake of clarity. ”

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