Study suggests wildlife smoke contributes to increased risk of COVID-19

It's been a year since COVID-19 has gripped the world and has affected millions of people. Researches and studies are being conducted to find out relevant facts about the deadly virus. Meanwhile, according to a new study, wildfire smoke can greatly increase the risk of COVID-19 infection. The research states that the smoke emitted from a wildfire can increase susceptibility to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

Study based on COVID-19

The findings were published in research named 'Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology' and was led by the Centre for Genomic Medicine at the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Washoe County Health District, (WCHD), and Renown Health (Renown) in Reno, Nev.

The DRI-led research team started the study to examine whether smoke from the 2020 wildfires has contributed to the COVID-19 infections in Reno. For conducting the study, the team used models to analyse the relationship between fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) from wildfire smoke and SARS-CoV-2 test positivity rate data from Renown Health.

As per the findings, it was seen that PM 2.5 from wildfire smoke was indeed responsible for a 17.7 percent increase in COVID-19 cases during the wildfire between August 16 till October 10 last year.

Reno which is located in Washoe County of northern Nevada, was exposed to higher concentrations of PM2.5 for longer periods last year than any other metropolitan area. It was during the time when the area was exposed to extreme wildfire smoke from the California wildfires leading to a hike in the COVID-19 cases.

Desert Research Institute (DRI) on the study

Daniel Kiser, M.S., co-lead author of the study and assistant research scientist of data science at DRI said, "Our results showed a substantial increase in the COVID-19 positivity rate in Reno during a time when we were affected by heavy wildfires smoke on California wildfires."

According to the findings, Gai Elhanan, M.D., co-lead author of the study and associate research scientist of computer science at DRI said, "We are located in an intermountain valley that restricts the dispersion of pollutants and possibly increases the magnitude of exposure, which makes it even more important for us to understand smoke impacts on human health."

"We believe that our study greatly strengthens the evidence that wildfire smoke can enhance the spread of SARS-CoV-2."

(Source: ANI)