Chandigarh April 16, 2021
The team comprising of Dr.Suman Mor, Chairperson and Associate Professor from Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University and Dr.Ravindra Khaiwal, Additional Professor of Environmental Health from the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India along with Ms. Akshi Goyal, Research Scholar and Chandigarh, India examined the existing scientific evidence to better understand the linkage between the pollen bioaerosols, COVID-19, meteorological parameters and anticipated risk in the severity of allergic rhinitis and asthma.
The main objective of their examination was based on increasing evidences that SARS-CoV-2can spread via dispersal of bioaerosols from an infected person. Airborne pollen can behave as an effective carrier for SARS-CoV-2 transport, dispersal and its proliferation. This could be one of the possible reasons for the rapid spread of COVID-19.However, the complexity of the corona virus with aspects of bioaerosol transmission still requires further examination.
Dr. Khaiwal mentioned that spring brings beauty to the surroundings but it’s also a key time of year for seasonal allergies and as the plants release pollen, millions of people start to sniffle and sneeze due to pollinosisor allergic rhinitis. He spoke that their study examined the linkages between pollen bioaerosols, COVID-19 including the impact of meteorological parameters in changing climate.
Ms. Akshi mentioned that pollen grains are male biological structures produced by higher plant cells vital for sexual reproduction. She mentioned that their size range varies between 2 µm- 300 µm and they are themselves immobile and dispersion is aided by agents such as wind, insects, birds and water.
Dr. Mor highlighted that the main objective of the study was to examine the airborne transmission of COVID-19 through pollen particles and to identify the major gaps to restrict the spread of COVID-19. She further added that this is the first global study based on airborne pollen and COVID-19 aims to promote research towards a different perspective for the control of infectious diseases.
The study highlighted that allergic rhinitis and asthmatic patients could have increased severity and susceptibility towards COVID-19 but surprisingly the authors observed an unexpected low prevalence of COVID-19 in asthmatic and allergic rhinitis patients. The study explains that certain types of immune-responses, accumulation of eosinophils, lower ACE-2 receptors expression, Th-2 skewed immunity and elevated histamine, immunoglobin E (IgE) serum levels and systematic steroids are the possible features of allergic diseases or asthma patients that were found to be associated with reduced severity of COVID-19. Hence, the author highlighted that pollen bio-aerosols may lead to pre-modified immune activation, which seems to protect against COVID-19infection or severity of the infection.
Dr.Khaiwal, PGIMER, Chandigarh mentioned that they not only examined the direct relationship between pollen and COVID-19 but also looked at the biological and physical aspects of pollen-virus attachment, their viability and long-range transport as this could affect the transmission of COVID-19.Dr.Mor, Panjab University, Chandigarh further added that this study focuses on searching for every possibility to provide additional security layers to overcome future corona-like infectious diseases.
The study is recently accepted in Sustainable Cities and Society, which is a reputed peer-reviewed international journal by Elsevier. As highlighted by one of the experts, this breakthrough contribution will enhance the understanding of airborne pollen influence on the COVID-19 outbreak and open doors for new ideas for further research to minimize the infection and severity of COVID-19 and similar infectious diseases.
Weblink: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670721001761
Journal: Sustainable Cities and Society (IF-5.26)
