Los Angeles/New Delhi: So you got the full vaccine against the coronavirus and thought you were safe now? Maybe not so good news for us then for you. According to a new study, exposure to air pollutants, particularly particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), increases the risk of hospitalization among COVID-19 patients by up to 30 percent, even for fully vaccinated patients.Also Read – Health Awards 2022: IDPL honors India’s healthcare warriors
A team including researchers from the University of Southern California (USC), US, analyzed the medical records of patients at the Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) Department of Research and Evaluation. Across the health care network, 50,010 patients aged 12 years and older were diagnosed with Covid-19 in July or August 2021, when the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was circulating and many were vaccinated. Also Read – Wealth inequality: Reports suggest that wealth inequality in India peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic, statistics and numbers reveal
“These findings are important because they show that, while COVID-19 vaccines are successful in reducing the risk of hospitalization, people who receive the vaccine and are exposed to polluted air are still at risk for worse outcomes than those who are not vaccinated. that are not exposed to air pollution, said Annie Xiang, study author and senior research scientist at KPSC. Also Read – Tenants alert! House rent is now expensive in Delhi, Mumbai and 5 other cities. Check area wise rates here
How was the study conducted?
The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, estimated air pollution exposure levels for each participant based on their residential address. The researchers looked at the average PM2.5, NO2 and ozone (O3) levels over a period of one month and one year before each patient received a Covid-19 diagnosis. “We examined long-term and short-term exposure to air pollution, which may influence the severity of COVID-19 through different mechanisms,” said Zhanghua Chen, assistant professor at USC and co-first author of the study.
5 more points for this big story on the correlation between Covid-19 and air pollution:
- In the long term, pollution is associated with an increase in cardiovascular and lung diseases, which in turn are associated with more severe COVID-19 symptoms, the researchers said.
- In the short term, exposure to air pollution can worsen lung inflammation and also alter the immune response to the virus, they said.
- The team found that among 30,912 unvaccinated people, high short-term PM2.5 exposure increased the risk of Covid-19 hospitalization by 13 percent, while long-term exposure increased the risk by 24 percent.
- For NO2, short-term exposure increased the risk of hospitalization by 14 percent and long-term exposure by 22 percent, according to the researchers. Ozone was not significantly associated with COVID-19 hospitalizations, they said.
- For those who were partially or fully vaccinated, the risks of hospitalization related to exposure to air pollution were slightly lower—but the difference was not statistically significant.
