Seropositivity for Corona virus found to be lesser in Vegetarians, Smokers

नमस्कार दोस्तों, in today's blog we talk about a survey which is conducted by CSIR-IGIB, Delhi. The report shows that Vegetarian and Smokers were found to have lower risk of getting infected from Covid-19. We will know everything about this CSIR' study and it's report. Let's start with me.

Pic: The Indian Express

First, Let me tell you about Council Of Scientific and Industrial Research i.e. CSIR in short. CSIR was found in 1942 by the Government of India. CSIR works under Ministry of Science and Technology. Prime Minister of India remains President of CSIR. CSIR has a large network of 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units with 4600 active scientists supported by about 8000 scientific and technical personnel.

"Smokers and vegetarians were found to have lower seropositivity indicating that they may be at a lesser risk of getting infected by coronavirus, according to a pan-India serosurvey conducted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in its nearly 40 institutes." The Indian Express.

Serological is a type of antibody test to look for presence of antibodies, which are made in the response of specific infection. So presence of antibodies in blood refers to seropositivity and absence of antibodies is seronegativity.

Last year, Union Health Ministry had said that smokers were more vulnerable to corona virus. But recent study done by CSIR revealed that smokers have less risk of contracting corona virus due to seropositivity. For the study, CSIR collected 10,427 adult samples of individual and their family members working in its institutions and laboratories to assess the presence to antibodies to Covid-19. 

This study is done by CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, revealing that out of 10,427 individuals, 1,058 (10.14 per cent) had antibodies against Covid-19. 

The study said: "Our finding that smokers are less likely to be seropositive is the first report from the general population and part of growing evidence that despite COVID-19 being a respiratory disease, smoking may be protective". 

The research paper also cited two studies from France and similar reports from Italy, New York and China, which reported lower infection rates among smokers.

Shantanu Sengupta is a senior scientist at IGIB and one of the co-authors of the paper. He said "The study found that higher seropositivity was found for those using public transport and with occupational responsibilities such as security, housekeeping personnel, non-smokers and non-vegetarians".

Study also found that people with blood group 'O' may be less susceptible to the infection, while people with blood groups 'B' and 'AB' were at high risk.

This is the end of blog. Tell me in comment section what do you think about this study done by CSIR ??

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Er. Kamal Chauhan

Founder of World Current Affairs. Inspired to make things looks better.