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]]>Facemasks may limit the severity of coronavirus cases, University of California San Francisco researchers said in a paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Although face coverings are more effective in preventing droplets from being expelled into the air than they are in preventing droplets from being breathed in, masks still may be able to mitigate how severe an illness an individual gets if infected by COVID-19, researchers explained in the release.
N95 MASKS USED AGAINST CORONAVIRUS CAN BE DECONTAMINATED WITH RICE COOKER: STUDY
“It’s likely that face masks, by blocking even some of the virus-carrying droplets you inhale, can reduce your risk of falling seriously ill from COVID-19,” Monica Gandhi, MD, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, said in a university press release. “The more virus you get into your body, the [sicker] you are likely to get.”
Based on the researchers’ epidemiological observations, Gandhi and her colleagues suggest in the paper that masks can lead to milder or asymptomatic infections by reducing the amount of virus people breathe in.
“Masks, depending on [the] type, filter out the majority of viral particles, but not all,” the researchers stated in the published report.
The notion of viral dose or viral inoculum was incorporated with early smallpox vaccines in the 16th century in China where small amounts of the virus were injected into a healthy person to create a mild illness followed by immunity. It was also involved with the influenza A virus, where healthy volunteers who received a larger dose of the influenza A virus had symptoms that were more severe, the release said.
“Masks, depending on [the] type, filter out the majority of viral particles, but not all,” the researchers stated in the published report. (iStock)
The study authors credit face masks for contributing to lower death rates and more mild cases with the more recent wave of COVID-19 infections, along with better treatments, more testing, and younger patients, according to the press release. However, more data is needed to track cases geographically and correlate the severity with mask-wearing.
Severe illness rates are lower in countries such as Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea where the wearing of face masks was already socially acceptable, according to the release.
“We’re also saying that masks, which filter out a majority of viral particles, can lead to less severe infection if you do get one,” Gandhi stated in the press release. “If you get infected, but have no symptoms – that’s the best way you can ever get a virus.”
The release noted a hamster study where a surgical mask separated cages of hamsters with COVID-19 and uninfected hamsters. The mask was found to decrease transmission of coronavirus, while the hamsters that had contracted SARS-CoV-2 developed milder symptoms, according to the report.
Gandhi said viral dose could be another factor regarding the prognosis of the virus based on two outbreaks of coronavirus on cruise ships, according to the release. The first outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 on the Diamond Princess outside of China 18% of the 634 passengers positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic. In the other case, in March onboard an Argentinian cruise ship, 81% of the 128 people who tested positive were asymptomatic, according to the news release.
The major difference, according to Gandhi, was that passengers on the Argentinian ship were given surgical masks and staff N95 masks as soon as a passenger was detected to have COVID-19.
HOMEMADE CORONAVIRUS FACE MASKS SHOULD BE TWO OR THREE LAYERS TO STOP SPREAD OF VIRUS, STUDY FINDS
There were similar findings in food processing plants, per the researchers. Some 95% of 124 infected employees were asymptomatic in an Oregan seafood processing plant, while nearly 95% of 481 COVID-19-positive employees were asymptomatic in a Tyson chicken processing plant in Arkansas where masks were worn.
Wearing face masks could result in less severe cases of COVID-19 which would put less of a burden on the health care system and possibly increase herd immunity as a potential vaccine is developed, Gandhi said in the release.
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]]>The post COVID-19 Severity May Be Impacted by Individual Immune System Genetic Differences appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Genetic variability in the human immune system may affect susceptibility to, and severity of infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The research is published today, April 17 in the Journal of Virology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.
Individual genetic variation may explain differences in the strength of immune responses. Certain immune system genes, called human leukocyte antigen genes that are involved in recognizing pathogens, vary from person to person. Variations can influence how well the immune system recognizes a given pathogen. Poor recognition of SARS-CoV-2 could cause a person to be more vulnerable to the virus.
“In particular, understanding how variation in HLA [a component of the immune system containing multiple genes] may affect the course of COVID-19 could help identify individuals at higher risk from the disease,” according to the authors of the new study.
The authors show that individual HLA, haplotype, and full genotype variability likely influence the capacity to respond to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and note that certain alleles in particular could be associated with more severe infection, as has previously been shown with SARS-CoV.
“This is the first study to report global distributions of HLA types and haplotypes with potential epidemiological ramifications in the setting of the current pandemic,” write the authors, from Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, and the Portland VA Research Foundation.
“HLA typing can be fast and inexpensive,” the authors write. “Pairing HLA typing with COVID-19 testing where feasible could improve assessment of viral severity in the population. Following the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, individuals with high-risk HLA types could be prioritized for vaccination.”
This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
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Genetic variability in the human immune system may affect susceptibility to, and severity of infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The research is published on April 17, 2020, in the Journal of Virology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.
Individual genetic variation may explain differences in the strength of immune responses. Certain immune system genes, called human leukocyte antigen genes that are involved in recognizing pathogens, vary from person to person. Variations can influence how well the immune system recognizes a given pathogen. Poor recognition of SARS-CoV-2 could cause a person to be more vulnerable to the virus.
“In particular, understanding how variation in HLA [a component of the immune system containing multiple genes] may affect the course of COVID-19 could help identify individuals at higher risk from the disease,” according to the authors of the new study.
The authors show that individual HLA, haplotype, and full genotype variability likely influence the capacity to respond to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and note that certain alleles, in particular, could be associated with more severe infection, as has previously been shown with SARS-CoV.
“This is the first study to report global distributions of HLA types and haplotypes with potential epidemiological ramifications in the setting of the current pandemic,” write the authors, from Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, and the Portland VA Research Foundation.
“HLA typing can be fast and inexpensive,” the authors write. “Pairing HLA typing with COVID-19 testing where feasible could improve assessment of viral severity in the population. Following the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, individuals with high-risk HLA types could be prioritized for vaccination.”
Reference: “Human leukocyte antigen susceptibility map for SARS-CoV-2” by Austin Nguyen, Julianne K. David, Sean K. Maden, Mary A. Wood, Benjamin R. Weeder, Abhinav Nellore and Reid F. Thompson, 17 April 2020, Journal of Virology.
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00510-20
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