New Research Suggests Dengue Antibodies Might Provide Some Immunity Against Covid-19

A new study done by researchers of the University of São Paulo in Brazil and Duke University, US says that the dengue antibodies might be giving immunity against Covid 19.

(Image: PTI)

New Delhi: A new study suggests that the dengue antibodies might be giving immunity against Covid 19. the research which is yet to be peer-reviewed comes from University of São Paulo in Brazil and Duke University, US. Researchers of the University of São Paulo in Brazil and Duke University, US found that states in Brazil which saw a large population that contracted dengue in 2019-2020 has a slower spread of Covid-19. A Reuters report said that the study was being published ahead of peer review on the MedRxiv preprint server and will be submitted to a scientific journal. The researchers found that during the first three months of the pandemic, about 17 ‘super-spreading’ cities accounted for upto 99 percent of the Covid-19 cases in Brazil and “states in which a large fraction of the population had contracted dengue fever in 2019-2020 reported lower Covid-19 cases and deaths”. They also claim that it took longer for such states to reach exponential community transmission, due to slower SARS-CoV-2 infection growth rates. The study highlights a significant correlation between lower incidence, mortality, and growth rate of COVID-19 in populations in Brazil where the levels of antibodies to dengue were higher. Brazil has the world’s third-highest total of Covid-19 infections with more than 45,60,083 cases, only behind the US and India. With 1.37 lakh fatalities, the country has the second-highest number. Although this is not the first time this link has been created, earlier a study by CSIR’s Indian Institute of Chemical Biology which was led by Subhajit Biswas was the first to suggest that dengue antibodies can bind with SARS-CoV-2. This study has been published in MedRxiv as well, states “five of thirteen Dengue antibody-positive serum samples, dated 2017 (pre-dating the Covid-19 outbreak) produced false-positive results in SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM rapid strip tests.”