[News] Resistance to COVID-19 in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia surprises experts

[Dr.Drako]

The official balances of the coronavirus of both nations confirm this: in the jungle Loreto there are 7,953 infections and 321 deaths, while in Cusco, which has 50% more po[CENSORED]tion, there are only 1,494 cases and 13 deaths.

 

The inhabitants of the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru have better resisted the coronavirus than their compatriots in the lowlands, which has attracted the attention of experts.

 

In Peru, the second country with the most cases of coronavirus in Latin America behind Brazil, the pandemic has wreaked havoc in coastal cities, including Lima, and in the jungle region of Loreto, where the Amazon River is born.

 

However, less than 10% of infections are in the Andean highlands, over 3,000 meters high, as in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, where cases are comparatively few and the death toll is minimal.

"We have registered the cases that exist in (Peruvian Andean) cities such as Cusco, Huaraz, Cajamarca, Cerro de Pasco, Abancay, Huancavelica, and indeed there are fewer cases," Augusto Tarazona, head of the Commission of Public Health of the Medical College of Peru.

"In the cities themselves in elevated areas, cases are minimal and mortality is almost zero. This has caught our attention," he adds.

In neighboring Bolivia the same thing happens: contagions are concentrated in the lower eastern regions: in tropical Santa Cruz and the Amazonian region of Beni, bordering Brazil.

 

"The frequency of infections is substantially lower in Bolivia in high-altitude regions, such as La Paz (in the Andean zone), compared to that recorded in low-lying areas such as Santa Cruz," explains the Epidemiology chief of the Bolivian Ministry of Health. , Virgilio Prieto.

The official balances of the coronavirus of both nations confirm this: in the jungle Loreto there are 7,953 infections and 321 deaths, while in Cusco, which has 50% more po[CENSORED]tion, there are only 1,494 cases and 13 deaths.

 

In Piura, on the north coast (with 1.8 million inhabitants), there are 14,659 cases and 661 deaths, while the Andean Arequipa (1.4 million) registers 5,454 cases and 145 deaths.

The fatality rate in Loreto is 4.04%, while in Cusco it is 0.87%. In Lambayeque, on the Peruvian north coast, it is 5.79%, and in the Andean Ayacucho 0.83%. In Lima, on the central coast, it is 2.42%.

 

Something similar happens in Bolivia: in Santa Cruz there are 12,988 cases, while in La Paz, with almost the same po[CENSORED]tion, there are 1,386. Santa Cruz and the Amazonian Beni account for 68% of the deaths from the pandemic in all of Bolivia.

In Beni there are 3,326 cases, while in the Andean Oruro there are 443 although it has 20% more po[CENSORED]tion.

Peru, with 33 million inhabitants, records more than 244,000 coronavirus cases and 7,461 deaths. Bolivia, of 11 million, borders the 21,500 cases with 697 deaths.
 

Permanent hypoxia

Life is not easy in the Andean heights, where the great Inca civilization developed from peoples who lived on agriculture and the raising of llamas and alpacas.

 

For now, there is no scientific answer to explain what happens with the coronavirus in high places, but the key would be in the respiratory system of people who live in an environment with less oxygen, according to experts.

 

"These are aspects that are being theorized and are only beginning in-depth studies," says Dr. Tarazona.

"People with chronic hypoxia (oxygen starvation) may have fewer ECA (angiotensin-converting enzyme) receptors, which are the gateway gateways for the virus," says Peruvian infectologist Eduardo Gotuzzo.

"The virus has fewer doors of entry and can produce less contagion," he adds.

 

Tarazona points out that "it is beginning to be theorized that ACE receptors would have some differences in high Andean people due to their permanent hypoxia."

 

"That makes them adapt to a breathing system with less oxygen, and this in some way influences the pathophysiology of the virus within the human body. There is an adaptation of the body to not retain the virus," he adds.

Ultraviolet rays?

Another explanation is ultraviolet rays. Certain studies maintain that these act as a natural sterilizer in high areas.

"Ultraviolet radiation is definitely higher at height, and that means that the virus survives less or that there are fewer viruses in the exposure areas," says doctor Carlos Ibérico, a pulmonologist at the Sabogal hospital in Lima.

However, the ultraviolet theory does not convince everyone.

 

"The possibility that ultraviolet rays could affect something, would occur if the germ was in the street, but the germ is within our body at 37 degrees Celsius," says Prieto, who fears that the supposed benefits of the r

Edited June 23, 2020 by Dr.Drako
Closed Topic / Complete 24 hours.