India’s terrible pollutant season has returned as air quality in the capital Delhi and other northern cities has deteriorated in the past two weeks.
This is bad news for India’s fight against coronavirus, as several studies around the world have linked air pollutants to an increase in the number of Instances and Deaths of Covid-19.
A Harvard University shows that a buildup of only one microgram consisting of one cubic meter of PM 2. 5 (tiny and harmful pollutants in the air) is linked to an 8% increase in the Covid-19 mortality rate. The British University of Cambridge also discovered a link between the severity of Covid-19 infection and long-term exposure to air pollutants, adding nitrogen and ozone oxides at ground level from car exhaust gases or burning fossil fuels.
“These pollutants can also cause a persistent inflammatory reaction and increase the threat of infection with airway-attacking viruses,” Marco Travaglio, one of the studio’s co-authors, told the BBC.
PM2. 5 degrees in Delhi have averaged around 180 to 300 micrograms, consistent with cubic meter in recent weeks, 12 times more than WHO protection limits.
It’s a miserable change. Delhi citizens had to breathe blank air for most of the year, as strict blockade paralyzed industries and traffic.
No studies have yet been conducted in India to read about the effects of air pollutants on Covid-19 infection or cure rates, but doctors and epidemiologists have long warned that poisonous air will only obstruct India’s fight against the virus.
The country now has the highest number of cases in the world (7. 5 million or more) and the third highest number of deaths (more than 114,000) due to the virus, deaths consistent with millions of inhabitants are relatively low.
But experts say the deterioration in air quality is probably due to the accumulation of numbers.
Delhi, already one of the cities hardest hit by the pandemic, is probably the maximum to bear the brunt, as its population has been exposed to harmful levels of pollutants for years.
“The stage in Delhi can get serious this winter,” Dr. Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics at Harvard University and principal scientist of the study.
Air is particularly bad in the winters, from November to February, when several points (farmers who burn straw to cover fields, car and industry pollutants, festive fireworks and low wind speed) contribute to what doctors call a “deadly cocktail. “poisonous gases. “
Harvard kidnapped more than 3,000 counties in the United States, but the effects are alarming for Delhi also given its terrible air pollutant records: it has consistently ranked among the world’s most polluted cities.
“We came to the conclusion even after considering many points of confusion, such as population density and socioeconomic variables,” Dr Dominici said.
The researchers concluded that there was an urgent desire to aerating pollutants in the spaces seriously affected by Covid-19.
Yizhou Yu, who worked in the Cambridge studio, Delhi had to be on guard this winter.
“A spike in severe cases can temporarily overwhelm the fitness formula and it’s imaginable that this will further increase the mortality rate,” he said.
Mary Prunicki, director of air pollutants and fitness studies at Stanford University, says the poorest communities in the United States are likely to be the most affected than others.
This also applies to India. In Dehi, for example, the deficient in ghettos closest to pollutant resources such as commercial units, structure sites and high-traffic roads.
Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, also declared an urgent desire to control pollutant levels, in a different way, the capital will face two fitness emergencies at the same time.
“It’s a scary scenario,” says Dr. DJ Christopher, lung chief at prestigious Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu.
PM2. 5 waste can enter the lungs, causing inflammation and damage, before traveling into the bloodstream, leading to serious health problems.
Studies have shown that exposure to maximum levels of contaminants worsens the condition of patients with diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and asthma, and also weakens the immune formula of healthy people.
“The lung is the gateway to the frame and any damage to the organ can cause serious problems. And that makes other people more sensitive to Covid-19,” Dr. Christopher said. “It’s like fighting war with weakened frontline soldiers. . “
Experts say pollutants can also contribute to the spread of coronavirus.
“In addition to air pollutants that reduce immune defenses, it is an idea that waste and nitrogen dioxide provided in the air can act as vectors for the spread and survival of waste in the air such as covid [virus],” Prunicki said.
“A mouse test found that nitrogen dioxide increases the number of receptors the virus binds to one hundred times. “
Clean Air Doctors, a public fitness initiative that includes Dr. Christopher, warned that the fatal air of the pandemic is a “combination we will have to check to avoid. “
A government report predicted that Delhi will most likely report 15,000 cases a day during the winter months, and pollutants may increase the likelihood that more of these cases will become serious.
The scenario is “much more urgent now,” Dr. Christopher said. “Delhi will have to reduce pollutants to prevent a Covid crisis and crush fitness systems in winter. “
“The government, especially in Delhi, will have to take swift action to reduce air pollution. Otherwise, we are on the hunt for a very dark winter.