Paradoxical Influence of Hygiene over COVID-19 Death Rate

Abstract

In the recent times, COVID-19 pandemic had emerged as the most lethal of all infectious diseases and had affected globally, especially the developed nations. In such scenario, it is indispensable to understand the most compelling factor contributing towards higher mortality. Paradoxically, better sanitation leads to poor “immune training” and this Hygiene hypothesis postulates that exposure to pathogens early in life gives protection from allergic diseases later in life. Moreover, improvement in hygiene practices such as better sanitation, availability of safe drinking water, hand washing facilities etc. causes reduction in the impact of communicable diseases. On the contrary, such a reduction to the exposure to infectious agents might have a close relationship with higher prevalence of autoimmune disorders. Among all the contributory factors that lead to non-communicable diseases, autoimmunity is the most important one. Severe autoimmune reaction is one of the primary manifestations of COVID-19 occurring in the later phase of pathogenesis of the disease. There is a great paradoxical influence of poor hygiene and sanitation over reduction in COVID-19 death rate.